board The board is square, with sixty-four smaller squares, arranged in an 8x8 grid. The smaller squares are alternately light and dark colored (green and buff in tournaments), in the famous "checker-board" pattern. The game of checkers is played on the dark (black or green) squares. Each player has a dark square on his far left and a light square on his far right. The double-corner is the distinctive pair of dark squares in the near right corner.