How to Make a Regulation Chess Board

Select a nice cut of wood from your local home improvement center. Walnut, oak veneer, mahogany and white birch are commonly used in building wooden chess boards. Ask one of the employees to cut the piece of wood into a 16-by-16-inch square that is also about 1/2-inch thick.

Lay the board on a flat surface, preferably a workbench, and use the sandpaper to smooth over the top, bottom and edges.

Paint the entire board with a base coat of white paint and let it dry overnight.

Use your carpenter's pencil and tape measure to mark off the squares on your chess board. On a 16-inch regulation board, each square should be 2 inches long and wide. Make a 1/4-inch mark with your pencil every 2 inches down the sides of the board and across the top and bottom of the board.

Use your yardstick to connect each mark in a straight line, from side to side and top to bottom. Take your pencil and connect each 1/4-inch mark by drawing a straight line across the board. This will create a grid on top of the board. You now have each square of the chess board marked: eight squares across the board and eight from top to bottom, for a total of 64 squares.

Put a strip of masking tape on the outside edge of every other square on the grid. Paint inside each taped square using the brown paint first. Let the paint dry overnight and repeat the process with the beige paint for the remaining squares. Once this step is completed you are ready to use your new chess board.