First of all, the quality of this apps user interface (UI) is really good. I have used Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition on the PC previously and I think that program is still the best learning program Ive ever experienced. Some of my recommendations below are informed by my experience with Chessmaster. Some of these suggestions have been mentioned in other reviews. Because of the great quality of the user interface, I trust that this app will grow into what I envision below.
Im going to be teaching my twin 7-year-olds chess using this app on the iPad, so my review will lean in that direction. I have used it on the iPhone myself and I assume the iPad experience is similar, just bigger. I bought it on the iPad and it works on both the iPad and iPhone since I have my same apple account on both I got two for the price of one. Thanks!
The tutorials are good but I think they need to be reordered, expanded/explained, words simplified, and a few missing parts of the chess game need to be added and other parts corrected. Oh, and remove your companys ads from this paid app - not cool. I want all the screen real estate dedicated to what I care about and paid for.
1) Reorder the tutorials a bit. I think its more effective to cover the board itself, ranks and files, chess notation, then pawns, then move up in piece value. This app covered king first, then queen, etc. When referring to how the queen moved, it said that it moves like the rook and bishop combined, but it hadnt covered how those pieces moved yet. Do it more like Chessmaster did it.
rcronk about Chess Academy for Kids by Geek Kids