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A chessboard is the type of checkerboard
Checkerboard

A checkerboard is a board on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....
 used in the game
Game

A game is a structured wiktionary:activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from Manual labour, which is usually carried out for wiktionary:remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas....
 of chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
, and consists of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) arranged in two alternating colors (light and dark). The colors are called "black" and "white" (or "light" and "dark"), although the actual colors are usually dark green and buff
Buff (colour)

Buff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buff leather.Biology* Buff is widespread in the animal kingdom ....
 for boards used in competition, and often natural shades of light and dark woods for home boards. Materials vary widely; while wooden boards are generally used in high-level games, vinyl
Vinyl

A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group , −CarbonHydrogenCovalent bondCH2. These are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group....
 and cardboard are common for low-level and informal play.






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Encyclopedia


A chessboard is the type of checkerboard
Checkerboard

A checkerboard is a board on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....
 used in the game
Game

A game is a structured wiktionary:activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from Manual labour, which is usually carried out for wiktionary:remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas....
 of chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
, and consists of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) arranged in two alternating colors (light and dark). The colors are called "black" and "white" (or "light" and "dark"), although the actual colors are usually dark green and buff
Buff (colour)

Buff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buff leather.Biology* Buff is widespread in the animal kingdom ....
 for boards used in competition, and often natural shades of light and dark woods for home boards. Materials vary widely; while wooden boards are generally used in high-level games, vinyl
Vinyl

A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group , −CarbonHydrogenCovalent bondCH2. These are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group....
 and cardboard are common for low-level and informal play. Decorative glass and marble boards are available but not usually accepted for sanctioned games.

The board is structurally similar to that used in English draughts
English draughts

English draughts, known simply as draughts in the United Kingdom and some other countries, and also called American checkers, straight checkers, or simply checkers, is a form of the draughts board game played on an 8?8 board with 12 pieces on each side that may only initially move and capture diagonally forwards....
 (American checkers), although the latter is usually in red and black. Some low-cost sets (especially those sold in toy stores) may use red and black squares and include pieces for both games; though suitable for informal play, such boards are often not accepted for sanctioned play, depending on the local authority's rules on equipment standards.

The board is always placed so that the rightmost square on the row nearest each player is a "white" square. The size of the board is usually chosen to be appropriate for the chess pieces used, and squares should be between 50mm and 65mm in size (2.0 to 2.5 inches). A square size approximately 1.25 to 1.3 times the size of the base of the king
King (chess)

In chess, the King is the most important chess piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that he would not be able to avoid capture ....
 is preferred (the base of the king should be about 78 percent as wide as the size of the squares.)

In modern commentary, the columns (called files) are labeled by the letters a to h from left to right from the white player's point of view, and the rows (called ranks) by the numbers 1 to 8, with 1 being closest to the white player, thus providing a standard notation called algebraic chess notation
Algebraic chess notation

Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers....
.

In older English commentary, the files are labeled by the piece originally occupying its first rank (i.e. Queen, King's rook, Queen's bishop), and ranks by the numbers 1 to 8 from each player's point of view, depending on the move being described. This is called descriptive chess notation
Descriptive chess notation

Descriptive chess notation, or just descriptive notation is a chess notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in Britain and America for doing so....
, and is no longer commonly used.

See also

  • Board representation
    Board representation

    In computer chess, software developers must choose a data structure to represent chess positions. Several data structures exist, collectively known as board representations....
  • Rules of chess
    Rules of chess

    The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, the modern rules first took form in Italy during the 16th century....
  • White and Black in chess
    White and Black in chess

    In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black." Similarly, the chess piece that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces." The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some other colors ....
  • Rank (chess)
  • File (chess)
  • Wheat and chessboard problem
    Wheat and Chessboard Problem

    The wheat and chessboard problem is a mathematical problem with the following idea: Say that you have a chessboard in front of you. If you were to place a grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth and so on, each time doubling the number of grains, how many grains of wheat would you need to...


External links

  • FIDE rules on chess equipment