Making a Chessboard for Our Son’s Fifth Birthday

Our son has recently gotten very excited about playing chess. He’s managed to figure out how pretty much all the pieces move (the knight is still tricky) and enjoys playing against us. So with his fifth birthday coming up, we figured building a custom-made chessboard out of hardwood would be a great gift that he can cherish for years.

Since we started woodworking a couple years ago, he’s always taken an interest. He loves identifying different woods and offering input on what he thinks looks good. He loves purpleheart, so we decided to make this board out of purpleheart and hard maple with a black walnut border. In addition, we built a base that doubles as a storage area for chess pieces (which we’ll probably make out of epoxy soon).

Check out the entire build process on our YouTube channel: