What this tool does
One eight-by-eight board that serves both games. Turn the coordinates on for chess notation, pick how dark the dark squares print, and add a page of counters: lettered chess pieces for both sides, or twelve checkers each.
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The board
Eight by eight, as large as the page allows, with the dark square at each player's left corner and a light one at the right, which is the orientation chess requires and checkers borrows. The board is the same for both games; only the pieces differ, so one sheet does for both.
Coordinates
Files a to h along the top and bottom, ranks 1 to 8 down both sides, so a game can be written down and a lesson can say knight to f3 and be understood. Turn them off for checkers or for a cleaner sheet.
Shade
Dark squares print light, medium or dark grey. Light uses the least ink and reads fine on a white page. Dark looks most like a boxed board and is easier to see across a table. Medium is the default.
Pieces
The pieces page prints counters in two colours. For chess each side gets a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns, lettered K, Q, R, B, N and P. For checkers each side gets twelve plain counters; a crowned piece is two stacked, as it always has been. Cut along the circles and glue them to card, or stick a coin behind each one so they stay put.
When paper is the right board
A classroom teaching a whole year group at once. A club that needs twenty boards for a tournament and owns six. A holiday cottage with no games cupboard. A grandparent teaching openings on the kitchen table without unpacking anything. Print it, play, recycle it.
Setting up
Chess: rooks in the corners, then knights, then bishops, and the queen on her own colour, which puts the white queen on the light d1 square and the black queen on the dark d8. Pawns fill the second rank. Checkers: twelve pieces each on the dark squares of the three nearest rows, and the board turned so a dark square is at each player's left. The rules reminder on the sheet repeats the parts people get wrong, including that captures in checkers are compulsory and that a king moves backwards.
Other boards
The classic game boards page uses the same engine for Go, Mancala, the Morris boards and Backgammon, and the cribbage board has its own page.
FAQs
Quick answers
Does the board work for both chess and checkers?
Yes. The board is identical; choose Chess or Checkers to change the pieces page and the rules reminder.
Which corner is dark?
The bottom-left, as the rules require. A light square sits at each player's right hand.
How big are the squares?
About 60 mm on A4 when the board fills the page, which is close to a tournament board's 57 mm.
What is on the pieces page?
For chess: sixteen lettered counters per side. For checkers: twelve per side. Cut, glue to card, or back each with a coin.
Can I print it without coordinates?
Yes, untick a to h coordinates. Checkers players usually do.
Can I choose how dark the squares print?
Light, medium or dark. Light saves ink and is still clearly two-tone.
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