Determine color of a chessboard square

Math String

79.8% acceptance

Feb 25, 2026

901

You are given coordinates, a string that represents the coordinates of a square of the chessboard. Return true if the square is white, and false if the square is black. The coordinate will always represent a valid chessboard square. The coordinate will always have the letter first, and the number second.

Solution

Rust

Time O(1)

Space O(1)

LeetCode

solution.rs

impl Solution {
  pub fn square_is_white(coordinates: String) -> bool {
    let bytes = coordinates.as_bytes();
    let col = (bytes[0] - b'a') as i32;
    let row = (bytes[1] - b'1') as i32;
    (col + row) % 2 == 1
  }
}