All the chess boards I could find locally were plastic, cardboard, or just tacky and cheap.  All the nice ones were more than I was willing to pay.  So I made mine from 2 1/2 inch squares of maple and oak.  I would have liked to have done the binding with purple heart and oak, but since there was none available locally I made a binding from laminated oak and maple stained carabet red. The chess pieces I ordered from the good folks at www.wholesalechess.com.