Checkerboard
Encyclopedia
English draughts
English draughts or checkers , also called American checkers or straight checkers or in Israel damka, is a form of draughts board game. Unlike international draughts, it is played on an eight by eight squared board with twelve pieces on each side...
is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black.
The term checkerboard is also used to denote any rectangular square-tiled board. In this sense it refers not to a physical board as such but to the mathematical
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
abstraction
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....
of such a board. The adjective chequered refers to the pattern shown in many locations, such as the checkered flag
Racing flags
Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track condition and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag stand near the start/finish line...
used to signify the end of a vehicle race, the Purina
Nestlé Purina PetCare
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company is the pet food division of Swiss-based Nestlé S.A., following its acquisition of the American Ralston Purina Company on December 12, 2001 and subsequent merger with Nestlé's Friskies PetCare Company. As a wholly owned subsidiary, it is headquartered at the General...
logo, or the livery on some emergency service vehicles. However when this pattern is used on such vehicles, in certain countries, it is called a Sillitoe Tartan
Sillitoe Tartan
The Sillitoe Tartan is the name given to the distinctive black and white chequered pattern which was originally associated with the police in Scotland, but which later spread to Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the United Kingdom, as well as to some other places such as Chicago...
. The checkerboard is also closely associated with national symbols of the nation of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
.
The checkerboard pattern is often associated with the Ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
music genre, for breaking the racial barrier between black and whites at the time. A checkerboard marking painted on a hilltop was used as visual guidance on Hongkong's old Kai Tak Airport
Kai Tak Airport
Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. It was officially known as the Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, when it was closed and replaced by the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok, 30 km to the west...
. Many taxicab
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
s also use a checkerboard pattern.
Games using checkerboards
A square checkerboard is with an alternating pattern is used for include:- Amazons
- ChapayevChapayev (game)Chapayev is a game played on a checkerboard, a unique hybrid of checkers and billiards which is played throughout the territory of the former USSR. The aim is to knock the opponent's pieces off the board. The game is named after the Russian Civil War hero, Vasily Chapayev...
- ChessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
- Chess variants on square boardsChess variantA chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
- Czech draughtsCzech draughtsThe board game of Czech draughts is played, as its name suggests, in the territory formerly occupied by the Czechoslovak Republic . It is governed by the Czech Draughts Federation.- Rules :...
- DraughtsDraughtsDraughts is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque...
- Frisian draughts
- GounkiGounkiGounki is an abstract strategy game in which pieces can combine and disperse to affect their movement possibilities. Played on an eight-by-eight square grid, the goal is to move one of your own pieces off the opposite end of the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same.It was...
- International draughtsInternational draughtsInternational draughts is a board game, one of the variants of draughts. It is played on a 10×10 board with alternatingly dark and light squares, of which only the 50 dark ones are used. There are two players on opposite sides, with 20 pieces each, light for one player and dark for the other...
- Italian draughtsItalian draughtsItalian draughts is a variant of the Draughts family played mainly in Italy and Northern Africa. It is a two-handed game played on a board consisting of sixty-four squares, thirty-two white and thirty-two black. There are twenty-four pieces: twelve white and twelve black...
- Lines of ActionLines of ActionLines of Action is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Claude Soucie. The objective of the game is to connect all of your pieces...
- Pool checkersPool checkersPool checkers, also called "American pool checkers", is a variant of draughts, mainly played in the southeastern United States.-Basic rules:...
- Russian checkersRussian checkersRussian draughts is a variant of draughts played in some parts in Russia and some parts of the former USSR, as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Israel.-Rules:...
- Turkish draughtsTurkish draughtsTurkish draughts is a variant of draughts played in Turkey.On an 8x8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side, in two rows, skipping the furthest back....
The following games require an 8×8 board and are sometimes played be played on a chessboard
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
.
- ArimaaArimaaThe objective of the game is to move a rabbit of one's own color onto the home rank of the opponent. Thus Gold wins by moving a gold rabbit to the eighth rank, and Silver wins by moving a silver rabbit to the first rank...
- BreakthroughBreakthrough (board game)Breakthrough is an abstract strategy board game invented by Dan Troyka in 2000 and made available as a Zillions of Games file . It won the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition, even though the game was originally played on a 7x7 board, as it is trivially extendible to larger board sizes.- Rules :The...
- CrossingsCrossings (game)Crossings is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott. The rules were published in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games...
- Mak-yekMak-yekMak-yek is a board game played in Thailand and Malaysia on an 8 by 8 board by two players each having sixteen pieces or "men."...
- MakrukMakrukMakruk , or Thai chess, is a board game descended from the 6th-century Indian game of chaturanga or a close relative thereof, and therefore related to chess. It is regarded as the most similar living game to this common ancestor of all chess variants....
- Martian ChessMartian ChessMartian Chess is an abstract strategy game for two to six players invented by Andrew Looney. It is played with Icehouse pieces on a chessboard or checkerboard; to play with a number of players other than two or four, a small, Non-Euclidean which can be tiled to produce a board of the required...
See also
- ChessboardChessboardA chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
- Croatian ChequyCoat of arms of CroatiaThe coat of arms of Croatia consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard that consists of 13 red and 12 silver fields. It's commonly known as šahovnica or grb...
- Square tiling
- Checkerboarding (land)Checkerboarding (land)Checkerboarding refers to a situation where land ownership is intermingled between two or more owners, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. Checkerboarding is prevalent in the Western United States due to its extensive use in railroad grants for western expansion, although it had its beginnings in...
- Battenburg markingsBattenburg markingsBattenburg refers to a pattern of high-visibility markings used to maximise conspicuity, primarily used on vehicles of the emergency services, but also in other applications such as uniforms...
- Polish Air Force checkerboardPolish Air Force checkerboardThe Air Force checkerboard is a national marking for the aircraft of the Polish Air Force, equivalent to roundels used in other nations' air forces. It consists of four equal squares, of which the upper left and lower right are white, and the other two – red. These are surrounded by a border...