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Get your materials. Cut your dowels. Stain the tiles. Create the frame. Cut the base. Glue all of the pieces in place. Done!

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You'll need 1 3/4" square dowel rods, 1x2 lumber, 1/4" plywood, shoe molding (optional), wood glue, sandpaper, and paint or wood stain/varnish (depending on how you want your board to look). You will also need a miter saw or a miter box. Try to buy the shoe molding and the lumber in the same type of wood, if you decide to use shoe molding. Cut 3/4" slices of dowel using the miter saw. You should be left with .75x.1.75x1.75" tiles. You will need 64 tiles total. Stain or paint the tiles into two separate colors, 32 of one, 32 of the other. One one side should need to be stained. Allow the stain to set before continuing. Using miter saw, cut four pieces of the 1x2 lumber picture frame style. One side should be 17" long, the other side should be 14" long. Stain or paint these outside pieces however you like. Cut a 17x17" piece of the 1/4 plywood. Measure out where the squares will go and then cover that part of the board in glue, gluing and then placing one row at a time. Remember to alternate the square colors. Your chess board should have a layout of 8 x 8 alternating colors with corners matching diagonally. Glue only on the plywood, do not get glue on the sides of the pieces. Once that is done, glue the mitered frame around the squares. Enjoy your new chess board.