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The program loaded first time after about seven minutes (loading time). The game has ten levels and plays a surprisingly strong game even at the lower levels, and does not fall into traps easily. The program uses the standard system of algebraic notation and will not accept illegal moves. It caters for, as you would expect, castling and en-passant capture. Now for the game.

The program has fast response time on all the lower levels, the first two (0 and 1) normally responding within 10 seconds. However it is quite slow once above level 3 and extremely slow at level 9. The board display is clear and lists at the side of the board a list of the last fifteen moves, what level you are playing at, and which of the two move evaluation modes you are in.

The game offers several options, "Help" which displays the option list and "Recommended Move" which offers you a good move, should you become stuck. "Self Play" gives you a demo game, the computer plays chess against itself. "Resign" allows you to resign mid-game. "Analyse" allows you to change or set up the board into a particular position.

The game is surprisingly quick given the fact that the game is almost entirely written in Basic. There are a few points however about this program that need modification, I feel. Firstly, you cannot save a game to continue later and the analyse mode is rather slow and inconvenient. Also, the game does not inform you when you are in check, in case you have not noticed this.

To summarise, the game is excellent value at £4.95 which is extremely cheap for a chess program. It is fairly fast and powerful and offers a challenge to virtually any player, whatever his skill. However, the game would be even better if some of the faults were wiped out. The options, especially the recommended move would, I feel, improve a beginner's game if he played the game enough times.