checkerboard n : a board having 64 squares of two alternating colors

English

Alternative spellings

• chequerboard

Noun

1. A pattern of squares of alternating colours
2. A board, usually square, covered with such a pattern; especially such a board with 64 squares, used to play chess and draughts / checkers

A checkerboard (or chequerboard) is a board on which American checkers 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 abstraction of such a board. The adjective checkered may refer to a pattern resembling a checkerboard, as in the checkered flag used to welcome the winning cars in a Formula One race, for instance, or the livery on some emergency service vehicles.

An 8×8 board is also used for some other board games, although not necessarily a board with an alternating pattern:

• Chess
• Makruk
• Arimaa
• Amazons
• Mak-yek
• Breakthrough
• Crossings
• Gounki
• Lines of Action
• Martian Chess
• Reversi
• Chapayev

A checkerboard marking painted on a hilltop was used as visual guidance on Hongkong's old Kai Tak Airport.

Many taxicabs also use a checkerboard pattern.

See also

• Chessboard
• Square tiling
• Checkerboarding
• Battenburg markings
• Polish Air Force checkerboard

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