Etymology Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.
1
Idiomatic Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure.
After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we are back to square one.
Withal he has the problem of maintaining the interest of the reader who is always being sent back to square one in a sort of intellectual game of snakes and ladders.1952, Edward Maurice Hugh-Jones, “The American Economy, 1860-1940. by A. J. Youngson Brown”, in The Economic Journal, page 411:
back to square one
adv
Etymology Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.
1
Idiomatic Back to the start, as after a dead end or failure.
After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we went back to square one.