Introduction

A chessboard pattern consists of alternating black and white squares arranged in an 8×8 grid.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to generate a simple chessboard pattern using Python programming.
This exercise is a great way to understand how to manipulate strings, loops, and basic logic in Python.

Objective

The goal of this exercise is to create a Python program that prints a chessboard pattern
using a combination of loops and string manipulation. The pattern will consist of rows and columns of
alternating symbols to represent the black and white squares of a chessboard.

Python Code to Generate Chessboard Pattern

def print_chessboard(size):
    for row in range(size):
        for col in range(size):
            if (row + col) % 2 == 0:
                print("X", end=" ")
            else:
                print("O", end=" ")
        print()

# Define the size of the chessboard
board_size = 8
print_chessboard(board_size)
            

Explanation of the Program

The program consists of the following main components:

• print_chessboard function: This function accepts a size argument to determine the dimensions of the chessboard. It loops through each row and column to print the chessboard pattern.
• Nested Loops: The outer loop iterates over each row, and the inner loop iterates over each column. The pattern alternates based on the sum of the row and column indices. If the sum is even, it prints “X” (representing one color), and if it is odd, it prints “O” (representing the other color).
• Size of Chessboard: We define the size of the chessboard to be 8×8, representing a standard chessboard, but you can modify the size by changing the value of the board_size variable.

How to Run the Program

To run this program, follow these steps:

1. Open your preferred text editor or IDE (such as VSCode, PyCharm, or any basic text editor).
2. Copy and paste the provided Python code into a new file.
3. Save the file with a .py extension (e.g., chessboard.py).
4. Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the folder where the file is saved.
5. Run the Python program by typing python chessboard.py and hitting enter.
6. You will see the chessboard pattern printed in the terminal.