Stop Gate game

Question

Hi, I am a student trying to program a game that has a checkerboard pattern and will be two players with one being a computer. The object is lay down "dominoes" which is a square panel and one more to the right of it (horizontal). The computer will take up two panels with each panel being above or below the other (vertical). When there is no more moves available for a player, that player loses. Each player is a different color.
First off, I have a checkerboard pattern drawn but at first I thought about using actionPerformed with some sort of button but now I am thinking of using mouseClicked and somehow having it read what panel it is in then fill that in with the one to it's right. Does that sound like the easiest plan of attack? Without being super advanced of course.
Here is my code so far:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class StopGate2 extends JFrame
  final int ROWS = 8;
  final int COLS = 8;
  final int GAP = 2;
  final int NUM = ROWS * COLS;
  int x;
  JPanel pane = new JPanel(new GridLayout(ROWS, COLS, GAP, GAP));
  JPanel[] panel = new JPanel[NUM];
  Color color1 = Color.WHITE;
  Color color2 = Color.GRAY;
  Color tempColor;
  public StopGate2()
    super("StopGate2");
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    add(pane);
    for(x = 0; x < NUM; ++x)
      panel[x] = new JPanel();
      pane.add(panel[x]);
      if(x % COLS == 0)
         tempColor = color1;
         color1 = color2;
         color2 = tempColor;
      if(x % 2 == 0)
        panel[x].setBackground(color1);
      else
        panel[x].setBackground(color2);
  public static void main(String[] arguments)
    StopGate2 frame = new StopGate2();
    final int SIZE = 300;
    frame.setSize(SIZE, SIZE);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}

Answer 1

I added the mouseListener to each panel but I am not able to pass the panel number that is being clicked.
Here is my code:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class StopGate2 extends JFrame implements MouseListener
  final int ROWS = 8;
  final int COLS = 8;
  final int GAP = 2;
  final int NUM = ROWS * COLS;
  int x;
  JPanel pane = new JPanel(new GridLayout(ROWS, COLS, GAP, GAP));
  JPanel[] panel = new JPanel[NUM];
  Color color1 = Color.WHITE;
  Color color2 = Color.GRAY;
  Color color3 = Color.YELLOW;
  Color tempColor;
  public StopGate2()
        super("StopGate2");
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    add(pane);
    for(x = 0; x < NUM; ++x)
      panel[x] = new JPanel();
      pane.add(panel[x]);
          panel[x].addMouseListener(this);
      if(x % COLS == 0)
         tempColor = color1;
         color1 = color2;
         color2 = tempColor;
      if(x % 2 == 0)
        panel[x].setBackground(color1);
      else
        panel[x].setBackground(color2);
  public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e)
       int whichButton = e.getButton();
     if(whichButton == MouseEvent.BUTTON1)
          System.out.println(x);
  public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e)
       //System.out.println("paint");
  public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e)
  public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e)
  public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e)
  public static void main(String[] arguments)
    StopGate2 frame = new StopGate2();
    final int SIZE = 300;
    frame.setSize(SIZE, SIZE);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}Encephalopathic, I am not clear on how I could do pass the MouseEvent variable.