The typical beginner’s chessboard uses short arrows to show the direction that pieces can move.  Because they do not use our 64 square mini chessboard diagrams (patent pending) they cannot display the relevant range the pieces can move.  Their King and Queen movement displays often look exactly the same except for the picture of the the chess piece.  In fact, the King can only move one square at a time while the queen can move as many squares as the board allows. You may not be able to see the difference on their displays.  Our diagrams are much clearer and make it easier for students to visualize the move on an actual chessboard.

Pawns move one or two squares forward on their first or initial move and one square forward thereafter, unless they attack or capture another piece.  Pawns can only attack or capture pieces that are on a square forward and diagonal to the square they are on.  The typical beginner’s chessboards show the pawns basic move with a forward arrow and the capture movement with two diagonal arrows.  This can be confusing because it implies that the pawn can move either forward or diagonally and does not address the option to move one or two squares on the first or initial move. We use two different diagrams for the basic move and the attack or capture.  This is much clearer for the students.

All good chess instructions suggest students castle as early in the game as possible. Casting is one of the first maneuvers taught after the basic moves for the 6 chess pieces.  But castling on the king side or queen side can be confusing, in the beginning.  None of the typical beginner’s chessboards offer any help regarding castling.  We present a clear diagram that shows how many squares and which direction the pieces move (from their starting positions).

Chess students have to communicate the positions of chess pieces by referring to the Rank and File.  Often, reference to how, where and the directions chess piece can move are stated as moving along a Rank, a File or a Diagonal.  Learning to communicate the position and directions of chess pieces is a must.  The FwC Beginner’s Chessboard makes understanding this chess terminology easier.

              As you can see from the two diagrams, how you castling from the King’s side depends on whether you are playing black pieces or white pieces.  This is because the Queen’s initial position is always on the square of her own color.  The opposite is true for the King. That means the black King will be on a white square and the white King will always be on the black square, when it is time to castle.  The FwC Beginner Chess Board always focuses on black pieces for the player playing black and white pieces on the player playing white. Our board gives both player the proper visual perspective on the diagrams.  This matters greatly when demonstrating things like board setup or castling.  The typical Beginner’s chessboard is biased toward one players.  Our board has no bias.

The typical beginner’s chessboard displays a very short text explanation of how pieces move.  The FwC Beginner chessboard gives each purchaser 60 days access to view fun, avatar narrated instructional videos.  There are separate videos for each of the instructional diagrams on our chessboard.