You won't need the add-on speech generator for this program. It actually speaks its moves on the well-known chess co-ordinate system, though the quality is not good enough to distinguish the words without reading them from the screen too. Perhaps a bit of a gimmick, but an interesting and clever one.

The graphics are more than gimmicky, and stand comparison with the much vaunted QL Chess program; the whole board is shown in fine 3-0, as are the pieces. Not just one view mind; you can turn to view the board from any side, and the effect is just as convincing. All the colours can be redefined too, so instead of sitting in front of glare, or an indistinct green-screen, you can set up as you wish.

I played the computer agamst Masterchess on the Spectrum. Over three levels and over 200 hundred moves, the Amstrad won once, the other two games were stalemated, though 3-D Voice Chess was notably slower in its responses. Its analyse mode allows alteration of the board, and having set up a chess problem, it acquitted itself well.

Another very commendable feature is the facility to save the program to disc. Other software houses take note. There's no clock, however, and only about three previous moves are displayed on the screen - there's not much room given to the 3-0. The first chess game I've seen where the standard of graphics matches the amount of work put into the game algorithm. Excellent.

D.M.