JLabel array for a checkerboard design - user-interface

Question

I simply cannot get my checkerboard graphic to appear using JLabels. I am not sure why it is not working. I did get it to work when I created it without using arrays, but the code was extremely long. What am I doing wrong?
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class GuiProgramTwo_1 extends JFrame {
public GuiProgramTwo_1() {
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
p1.setLayout(new GridLayout(6, 6));
JLabel[] array = new JLabel[69];
JLabel a1 = new JLabel();
a1.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
a1.setOpaque(true);
JLabel a2 = new JLabel();
a2.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
a2.setOpaque(true);
array[0] = new JLabel();
array[0] = a1;
p1.add(array[0]);
for(int i = 1; i < 69; i++) {
int x = i - 1;
array[i] = new JLabel();
if(array[x] == a1) {
array[i] = a2;
}
else {
array[i] = a1;
}
p1.add(array[i]);
}
add(p1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
GuiProgramTwo_1 frame = new GuiProgramTwo_1();
frame.setTitle("ShowFlowLayout");
frame.setSize(575, 400);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}

Answer 1

You need a unique JLabel for each position in your layout, you cannot reuse components and have them displayed in different areas of the application at the same time.
Also, your construction of your GridLayout may be wrong, you are specifying 6 rows and 6 columns which specifies room for 36 components, but it looks like you want to add a total of 69 JLabels.
p1.setLayout(new GridLayout(6, 6));