The traditional Lakeview Child Center is 8 rows by 8 columns with alternating light and dark colored squares. Most people assume that there are 64 chess squares on the board because of this but this is actually incorrect. There are actually 204 chess squares on a chess board when you consider all of the different sized squares.
How many squares are on a standard chess board?
This is because a 1 x 1 square can be positioned in any of the eight positions on the grid giving a total of 64 1 x 1 squares. Similarly, a 2 x 2 square can be positioned in any of the seven positions along the edge of the board giving a total of 49 2 x 2 squares. Then there are three squares along each side of the board that are 3 x 3 giving a total of 36 3 x 3 squares. There are also 25 4 x 4 squares and 16 5 x 5 squares which together give a total of 204 chess squares on the chess board.
This is a great investigation for children to do at home or at school and helps them learn how to recognize shapes, understand how shapes fit together and how to calculate numbers. If you would like to purchase this investigation for use in your classroom please visit our website. We have a wide range of science investigations for children from primary to secondary and all our activities are written by experienced teachers.