Introduction

CHESS TUTOR is a new way of using a microcomputer as a teacher. The system will
not play a game of chess against you; what it will do is to show you, with
demonstrations and text, all the essential things you need to know to be able to
play chess or, if you can play already, to play it better. The CHESS TUTOR tape
presents you with a set of carefully selected exercises for you to solve on your
ZX Spectrum, to test your knowledge and to give you practice.

The CHESS TUTOR introductory course is intended for newcomers to the game and
for those who have played a few times. It shows you the board starting
positions, the moves of all the pieces (including en passant, promotion, and
castling) and positions resulting in check, checkmate, stalemate, and perpetual
check.

CHESS TUTOR also teaches the basic tactics - pins, forks, double attacks and
skewers. By the end of this course, you will be well equipped with a sound
knowledge of the essentials of the game - and some of the material may well
surprise even those who have played chess before!

The introductory tape contains over 120 separate exercises, and well over 200
separate questions to answer. Moving pieces and flashing squares illustrate all
the essential points and help you to understand the answers to the puzzles. If
you get stuck on a problem, the computer will tell you the answer and
demonstrate it for you. You can revise your answers, go back to earlier
exercises, or jump forwards. If you get an answer wrong, the computer will tell
you why - or give you a hint to help you answer correctly.

Loading

CHESS TUTOR is in seven sections:
Side 1: loader, machine code, routines, master routines, part 1 and part 2 of
the course material.
Side 2: parts 3, 4 and 5 of the course material.

Moving from one part of the course to another

When you have finished with one part, and wish to go to another, make your
selection from the menu. The machine will tell you how to load the next part as
before.

General hints and notes

1 The system is structured to take you through the course step by step, showing
you instructional material followed by exercises. However, if you want to jump
from one part of the course to another, the system will allow you to do that as
well -just follow the instructions you see on the screen.
2 If you want to see the answer to a question, the system will give it to you -
but you must first have entered a wrong answer! The machine will then ask you to
enter Y or N for yes or no.
3 If you're entering an answer and you want to change it, type Z. The system
will delete what you have typed and allow you to enter your new choice.
4 If you want to give up on the longer puzzles, just type X.
5 If you elect to use the zero option and halt the program, the computer will
clear its memory ready for you to load a new application.
