Why do players search in a checkerboard pattern?

Every ship covers at least two squares

Ships cannot be next to each other

Battleship Board Game Quiz: Ships, Grids and Strategy

Players first drew the grids on paper, long before a plastic version made the game a toy-store hit, and this Battleship board game quiz looks at both. Play 10 interactive questions on the 10 by 10 grid, the carrier, battleship, cruiser, submarine and destroyer, the 1967 Milton Bradley edition, Electronic Battleship, checkerboard search strategy and the 2012 film.

Start Battleship Board Game Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Grid
How big is each player's ocean grid?
Carrier
How many squares does the aircraft carrier occupy?
Battleship
How many squares does the battleship occupy?
Destroyer
How long is the smallest ship, the destroyer?
Total
How many squares do all five ships cover?
Origin
How did people play Battleship before the board game?
Bradley
Which company released the plastic board game in 1967?
Electronic
Which version with sound effects came out in 1977?
Strategy
Why do players search in a checkerboard pattern?
Film
Which pop singer appeared in the 2012 film Battleship?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: How big is each player's ocean grid?
Answer: 10 by 10
Rows run from A to J.
Q2: How many squares does the aircraft carrier occupy?
Answer: Five
It is the largest ship.
Q3: How many squares does the battleship occupy?
Answer: Four
It is the second largest.
Q4: How long is the smallest ship, the destroyer?
Answer: Two squares
It is the hardest to find.
Q5: How many squares do all five ships cover?
Answer: 17
Carrier 5, battleship 4, cruiser 3, submarine 3 and destroyer 2.
Q6: How did people play Battleship before the board game?
Answer: With pencil and paper
Grids were drawn on paper.
Q7: Which company released the plastic board game in 1967?
Answer: Milton Bradley
Players used pegs to mark shots.
Q8: Which version with sound effects came out in 1977?
Answer: Electronic Battleship
Ads popularized a famous catchphrase.
Q9: Why do players search in a checkerboard pattern?
Answer: Every ship covers at least two squares
Half the squares are enough to find each ship.
Q10: Which pop singer appeared in the 2012 film Battleship?
Answer: Rihanna
The film featured alien invaders.

Battleship Board Game Quiz – Ships, Grids and Strategy

Battleship is a guessing game for two players, each hiding ships on a 10 by 10 grid marked A to J and 1 to 10. Players call shots, and opponents reply hit or miss until a whole fleet is sunk.

The classic fleet has an aircraft carrier of five squares, a battleship of four, a cruiser and submarine of three each and a destroyer of two, covering 17 squares. The game began as a pencil-and-paper pastime and was sold commercially as Salvo in 1931.

Milton Bradley released the plastic board game in 1967, and Electronic Battleship followed in 1977. Good strategy uses a checkerboard search, then targets nearby squares after a hit. A 2012 film adapted the game.

What This Quiz Teaches

Board game fans will enjoy these questions.

How the grid works
Which ships are used
How the game began
Which versions exist
Which strategies help

Did You Know?

Red pegs mark hits and white pegs mark misses.
Ships cannot be placed diagonally in standard rules.
Salvo variants allow multiple shots per turn.
Probability heat maps can improve guessing.
Mobile apps keep the game popular.