How to build a chessboard

Over at Treebeau, Tim is documenting his efforts to craft a chessboard. Learning the Sicilian Najdorf seems like it would be less complicated:

I started gluing up the thin strips of cherry and poplar for the chess board. I can only do these in pairs. 8 strips = 4 pairs, which I glued up and clamped. Next I will glue together 2 of THOSE pairs, then later the FINAL pair. Then the board will be half done. I then turn it 90 degrees and cut 8 strips again. When these are rotated and opposed, they will make the alternating 64 squares.

Apparently, there is little margin for error:

I glued up 4 of the "two strip" sub assemblies. When set, an hour later, I unclamped and scraped off excess glue.... This morning I looked and the one that was laying on top had formed a cup. Ugh!