A
chessboard is the type of
checkerboardA checkerboard or chequerboard is a board of chequered pattern 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
board gameA board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
chessChess 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...
, 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
buffBuff is a pale yellow-brown colour that got its name from the colour of buff leather.Displayed on the right is the colour buff.EtymologyAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, buff as a descriptor of a colour was first used in the London Gazette of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat...
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,
vinylA vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which 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 draughtsEnglish 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...
(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
kingIn chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
is preferred (the base of the king should be about 78% 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 notationAlgebraic notation is a method for recording and describing 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 notationDescriptive notation is a notation for recording chess games, and at one time was the most popular notation in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries , . It was used in Europe until it was superseded by abbreviated algebraic notation, which was introduced by Philipp Stamma in 1737...
and is no longer commonly used.
See also
- Board representation
In computer chess, software developers must choose a data structure to represent chess positions on the chessboard. Several data structures exist, collectively known as board representations. Chess engines often utilize more than one board representation at different times, for...
- 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, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
- 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 pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
- Wheat and chessboard problem
The wheat and chessboard problem is a mathematical problem: To solve this, observe that a chess board is an 8×8 square, containing 64 squares...
External links