I have a very good friend who runs a gallery in Gatlinburg, TN who wants me
to make him a very nice, and rather large, chessboard. I'm thinking the
squares will be something like 5". His chess pieces will be comic book
action figures about 8" tall. I will turn a 4" round base for each of
these. I'm guessing the board itself will be glued up of squares of
maple/cherry or maple/walnut. I'm thinking some simple inlay work may help
to dress up the board.

Does anyone have any advice/plans/ideas on how I should proceed? I have
some concerns that the board will simply be too large to "look right". If
the board is composed of 64 - 5" squares, that means it will be 40" X 40",
plus it really should have a border or 5" or 6". To me, a four (4') foot
chessboard is not too practical. But it is more a display for the action
figures than it is a board for playing chess. Comments please. Thanks.