A checkerboard (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
) or chequerboard (
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
;
see spelling differences) is a board of
checkered
Check (also checker, Brit: chequer) is a pattern of modified stripes consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical lines which form squares. The pattern typically contains two colours where a single checker (that is a single square within the chec ...
pattern on which
checkers
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
(also known as
English draughts
English draughts (British English) or checkers (American English), also called straight checkers or simply draughts, is a form of the strategy board game checkers (or draughts). It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The ...
) is played.
Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of alternating dark and light color, typically green and
buff
Buff or BUFF may refer to:
People
* Buff (surname), a list of people
* Buff (nickname), a list of people
* Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955)
* Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional ...
(official tournaments), black and red (consumer commercial), or black and white (printed diagrams). An 8×8 checkerboard is used to play many other games, including
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
, whereby it is known as a
chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
. Other rectangular square-tiled boards are also often called checkerboards.
Games and puzzles using checkerboards
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...
featured puzzles based on checkerboards in his November 1962
Mathematical Games column
Over a period of 24 years (January 1957 – December 1980), Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive monthly "Mathematical Games" columns for ''Scientific American'' magazine. During the next years, through June 1986, Gardner wrote 9 more columns, ...
in Scientific American. A square checkerboard with an alternating pattern is used for games including:
*
Amazons
In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, ...
*
Chapayev
Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev or Chapaev (russian: link=no, Василий Иванович Чапаев; 5 September 1919) was a Russian soldier and Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War.
Biography
Chapayev was born into a poor peasan ...
*
Chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
and some of its
variants
Variant may refer to:
In arts and entertainment
* ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine
* Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art
* ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells
* " The Variant", 2021 e ...
(see
chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
)
*
Czech draughts
Czech draughts is a board game played in the territory formerly occupied by Czechoslovakia (the present day Czech Republic and Slovakia). It is governed by the Czech Draughts Federation.
Game rules
The draughtsboard has eight ranks and eight f ...
*
Draughts
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
, also known as checkers
*
Fox games
Fox games are a category of asymmetric board games for two players, where one player is the fox and tries to eat the geese / sheep, and the opposing player directs the geese/sheep and attempts to trap the fox, or reach a destination on the board. I ...
*
Frisian draughts
Frisian draughts is a variant of draughts native to Friesland in the Netherlands.The rules are similar to International draughts, but is notable for its unique feature of allowing for orthogonal captures (up, down, left, right) in addition to the ...
*
Gounki
*
International draughts
International draughts (also called international checkers or Polish draughts) is a Abstract strategy, strategy board game for two players, one of the variants of draughts. The gameboard comprises 10×10 squares in alternating dark and light co ...
*
Italian draughts
Italian draughts ( it, Dama italiana) 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 twe ...
*
Lines of Action
Lines of Action (or LOA) is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by Claude Soucie. The objective is to connect all of one's pieces into a single group. The game was recommended by the Spiel des Jahres in 1988.
Rules
Goal
The ...
*
Pool checkers
American Pool Checkers, also called "American Pool", is a variant of draughts, mainly played in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States and in Puerto Rico.
Basic rules
As in the related game English draughts
English draughts (Britis ...
*
Russian checkers
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
The following games require an 8×8 board and are sometimes played on a
chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
.
*
Arimaa
Arimaa () is a two-player strategy board game that was designed to be playable with a standard chess set and difficult for computers while still being easy to learn and fun to play for humans. It was invented in 2003 by Omar Syed, an Indian-Am ...
*
Breakthrough
*
Crossings
Crossings may refer to:
* ''Crossings'' (Buffy novel), a 2002 original novel based on the U.S. television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''
* Crossings (game), a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott
* ''Crossings'' ...
*
Mak-yek
Mak-yek ( th, หมากแยก, ) is a two-player abstract strategy board game played in Thailand and Myanmar. Players move their pieces as in the rook in Chess and attempt to capture their opponent's pieces through custodian and interventio ...
*
Makruk
''Makruk'' ( th, หมากรุก; ; ), or Thai chess, is a board game that is descended from the 6th-century Indian game of ''chaturanga'' or a close relative thereof, and is therefore related to chess. It is part of the family of chess va ...
*
Martian Chess
Mathematical description
Given a grid with
rows and
columns, a function
,
or, alternatively,
The element
is black and represents the lower left corner of the board.
Gallery
File:Empty wooden chessboard.jpg, An empty 8×8 checkerboard
File:Font Awesome 5 solid chess-board.svg, An empty 8×8 checkerboard diagram
File:International draughts.jpg, The opening setup of international draughts
International draughts (also called international checkers or Polish draughts) is a Abstract strategy, strategy board game for two players, one of the variants of draughts. The gameboard comprises 10×10 squares in alternating dark and light co ...
, which uses a 10×10 checkerboard
File:CheckersStandard.jpg, English draughts
English draughts (British English) or checkers (American English), also called straight checkers or simply draughts, is a form of the strategy board game checkers (or draughts). It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The ...
tournament standard
See also
*
Chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
References
{{wiktionary
Draughts
Game equipment