Chessboard Design

[Don C Peterson]

I want to make my son a Chess/Checker board for Christmas. I've drawn up plans and attached them here.

I'm planning on using Walnut and Maple

I'll turn the pieces, again, out of Walnut and Maple.

The thing that I'm most curious about is how I've laid out the dovetails. Has anyone done them like that? It seemed like kind of an interesting idea, but now I'm wondering if it's pretty misguided. Since I've never seen a box laid out like that, I'm wondering if there's a good reason...