Square tactics solution How many squares are there on a
chessboard? (In total - we're not asking you just to count the
64 single black and white squares!) Once you think about this
puzzle in the right way, it's not hard at all. - There is one
square that is the full size of the chessboard. - There are 4
squares with sidelength one unit less than this (taking a single
square of the chessboard as having one unit length). - There are
9 squares with sidelength one unit less again, ie with
sidelength 6 units. - In general, there are n2 squares of
sidelength [8-(n-1)]. Adding all these numbers, for n between 1
and 8, we see that there are 1 + 4 + 9 + 16 + 25 + ... + + 64 =
204 squares in total on the chessboard. Back to main puzzle page