Things You'll Need:
- Wood
- Varnish
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Paint
- Brushes
- Wood pieces or hardware
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Step 1
Decide how you want to make the chessboard. You can glue squares of dark and light wood to create your board. Ebony, Rosewood, Red Sandalwood, Mahogany or Walnut can be used for dark squares. Boxwood, Bird's Eye or Curly Maple make nice white squares. Another way is to burn a chessboard onto a piece of wood with a wood burner. Some people use white and black tiles or paint.
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Step 2
Follow chessboard standards. Most boards are 12 ½ inches by 12 ½ inches. You need 8 rows with 8 squares in each row. These squares should be 1 ½ inch squared. You can use a ruler to draw guidelines on a plywood board or stencil the squares on another surface.
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Step 3
Seal your chessboard. If you painted your board, let the paint dry before you seal the board. Use several coats of varnish. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area and allow the coats to dry between applications.
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Step 4
Determine if you want to make or buy your pieces. There are 16 pawns, 4 rooks, 4 castles, 4 knights, 2 queens and 2 kings. You can buy chess set pieces without a board from Chess USA. You can make pieces using nuts, bolts and screws. Some people use wood pieces from a craft store.
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Step 5
Finish your pieces. If you used hardware, secure your pieces with metal adhesive or weld them together. You need a way to distinguish the two sides. To do this, you can paint your sides different colors or use different patterns for the pieces.
