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Chessboard

Chessboard with Staunton chess pieces

A chessboard is often painted or engraved on a chess table. The photograph shows a chess table in a park.

A chessboard is the board (checkerboard) used in the game of chess, which consists of eight rows and eight columns of squares arranged in two alternating colors (light and dark). Similar boards are also known as checkerboards. The colors are called "black" and "white" (or "light" and "dark"), although the actual colors are usually dark green and buff 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 and cardboard are common for low-level and informal play. Decorative glass and marble boards are available but not usually accepted for sanctioned games.

Some low-cost sets (especially those sold in toy stores) may use red and black squares, which is also used for toy checkers; 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. A square size approximately 1.25 to 1.3 times the size of the base of the king is preferred.

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.

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, and is no longer commonly used.

Some chess boards are themed, as in all the pieces are personified as characters from some specific source, e.g. Lord of the Rings chess [1].

• Eric W. Weisstein, Chessboard at MathWorld.
• Selecting a Chess Board