In a manner similar to the representation of the torus as a quotient of the plane, the pillow can be realized as a quotient of the torus. One represents the torus 1!' 2 as the unit square, centered at the origin in JR2 with opposite edges identified as in FIGURE la, and one considers the rotation a : 1!'2 --+ 1!'2 defined by a(z) = -z. The set {id, a} defines a 2-element group isomorphic to Z2. The upper half of the unit square is a fundamental domain for this action of this group, and you can convince yourself that the identifications on the boundary of the fundamental domain are precisely those of the pillow board. Thus, one can play chess on the pillow by playing on the torus centered at the origin and identifying diametrically opposite squares.
The realization of the pillow board as a quotient of the torus is not just a curiosity; it is a useful tool. To fix ideas, let us say that a board is a set of squares, with marked edges, together with a rule for connecting edges in pairs. We say that two boards are equivalent if there is a bijection between their sets of squares that respects the edge