My First Chessboard/Posting

As the title indicates this is my first ever post on LJs and my first attempt at building a chessboard. I have been trying to register for months and finally got an email today so I’m excited and honored to be on the same site with so many talented woodworkers.
Before I started the board I looked through images online and compiled some ideas that I liked from all of them. I had built cutting boards and small boxes before so I figured I just had to stick them together. My original idea was to make a hinged top with storage underneath, but I kept coming back to the drawer because I liked the look better. This was a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law and it took me a little over a month to build and finish, but he loved it. The 4th picture is from Christmas morning just after he opened it and I had stayed up all night building the dividers from Poplar.
The woods are Bloodwood, Tiger Maple, Walnut and Yellowheart. I tried a new technique for cutting coves on my table saw, a little scary at first but once everything is setup not bad at all. The hardest part was sanding out the saw marks of the very dense Bloodwood. I had some issues with the fine dust from the Bloodwood staining the Maple, especially on the splines where the end grain was exposed (picture 5). The feet and drawer dividers were both last minute additions because I just felt it was missing something. I was trying to make it look like it was floating, it really doesn’t, but I like the look anyway. It is finished with 1 coat of Seal-A-Cell Clear and then topped with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal Semi-Gloss on the base and 5 coats on the top. The pieces I bought from Lee Valley for like $4 plus shipping, not bad for solid maple and walnut. Thanks for looking and and I’m on here to learn so please feel free to provide any critiques or tips that I can work on. My other brother-in-law wants one now and his birthday is in March so hopefully I can learn from this one and build something cool for him.

-- Mike from Mass