Astral Checkerboard Decor



A subtrope of Chess Motifs. Somewhere "else" has this checkered motif on the floors, walls or both. It could be a Mental World, a Layered World or just an Eldritch Location.

Not necessarily Human Chess, but who knows?

Also known as the Mason Checkered Floor. Compare White Void Room. See also Cosmic Chess Game.

Anime and Manga

 * Kyousogiga: Inevitable, given the massive Human Chess and Alice in Wonderland refs.
 * All over the place in Black Rock Shooter, be it the OVA, the game or anything else.
 * Many of the Witches in Puella Magi Madoka Magica have this motif somewhere inside their closed off worlds.
 * When Homura fights at the end of the manga, the fight takes place in a dungeon with a checkered floor.
 * A checkerboard floor shows up in Soul Eater in every scene of, and exclusively in, Soul's mental image of his soul world when he's in his weapon form.
 * Seen in  in Kirby of the Stars.
 * In Black Butler, Ciel's mental world has a checkerboard floor in unrelated scenes in the anime and the manga, which by then had diverged into entirely different plots. In the manga there are even chess pieces, of which Ciel himself seems to be one.

Comic Books

 * Gideon Gordon Grave's battlefield in Ramona's mind in the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels has a checkered floor.

Film

 * All over The Matrix; one example is when Neo goes to meet Morpheus (and first enters "the Real World.") The movie is pretty blatant with the Alice in Wonderland refs in that scene.
 * Pan's Labyrinth
 * The Devil's office in The Devils Advocate.
 * Inception has dream locations like this.

Live Action TV

 * The C.I.D. ceiling in Ashes to Ashes. Even used in the promo pictures.
 * Twin Peaks has a variation: the black-and-white chevrons on the floor of the Black Lodge.
 * Doctor Who, "Mawdryn Undead": Turlough has an out-of-body experience following a car crash, and finds himself in a mysterious void with a checkered background, being recruited as a pawn in a Cosmic Chess Game.
 * The cockpit of the Majins/Megazords in Mahou Sentai Magiranger/Power Rangers Mystic Force is a not-actually-real place that looks like a checkerboard floor in the middle of a void.
 * For bonus points, the Rangers themselves even have their lower bodies turned into chess pieces bases while they're there.

Music Videos

 * Tom Petty's video for "Don't Come Around Here No More".

Video Games

 * Tartarus in Persona 3
 * In a similar vein, the Collective Unconscious in the Persona series.
 * The heart of the Amala Labyrinth in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne  has a checkerboard floor.
 * Interestingly, quite a bit on the Mario games. Given the Alice in Wonderland roots, little wonder.
 * The Astral Hall in Luigi's Mansion.
 * The green tiles in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 will actually disappear if Mario/Luigi were to step on them. Also, in the first game, the staircase leading to the planet on which Mario/Luigi fights Bowser will be smashed apart by meteorites.
 * The Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time.
 * The Forest Temple has rooms with this pattern as well.
 * Sonic 3 and Knuckles features them quite prominently in the Blue Sphere special stages. Green Hill Zone doesn't count, however, since despite featuring a prominent checkerboard pattern, it's not actually otherworldly within the context of the series.
 * Touhou: In Fanworks, Sikieiki's Court has a chessboard floor, somewhat justified, given her ability to judge things black and white.
 * The Background in the final battle of Lotus Land Story uses a Blue and black checkerboard background.
 * Also the Palace of the Earth spirits has a Checkerboard floor
 * Yume Nikki has a checkered pattern on Madotsuki's shirt. The Fangames took that and carried on with it, ending up with this trope.
 * Chessboard Land in King's Quest VI.
 * Quake has levels with this style of decor.

Web Animation

 * The Homestar Runner cartoon within a cartoon "Sweet Cuppin' Cakes" is set on a teal checkerboard plain. This is probably the show's least surreal feature.

Western Animation

 * My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: there's a notable creepy checkerboard ground in the scenes where the mane cast confront the villain Discord on his throne during part two of the season 2 premiere. Because of Discord, all of Ponyville had effectively been turned into an Eldritch Location.

Web Comics

 * Skaia in Homestuck is a Checkerboard PLANET after prototyping enough times.

Real Life

 * The black and white checkerboard floor found in all Masonic lodges.

Other

 * Due to the ease of generating a checkerboard pattern on an infinite plane, this is a common aspect of early computer-generated images. Compare the classic mirrored sphere on a checkerboard floor.
 * Commonly used to represent transparency in images being edited. Used in Paint Shop Pro, Paint.NET, The Gimp, and others.