maths

Sixty four

and there's one square on each side playing and sometimes a bunch of other squares watching.

Pawn to e4

e5

Nf3

Actually there's only one big square. It's a trick question. The lines making up the little "squares" are actually slightly jagged. It helps our eyes to better percieve the distance, since perfect squares would be too similar.

Add up the number of squares 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4....8x8 to find the total number of squares. In that sense it is a trick question!

It is not necessary to 'count them'.
There are 8X8=64 single squares, 7X7 doubles, 6X6 triples, then 5X5, 4X4, 3X3, ending up with 2X2 with side 7 and 1X1 with side 8.

Well reasoned jg4fun, so 204 is the answer, well done!