Determine how big you want the checkered squares to be.
A chess and/or checker board has 8 squares across and 8 down, 64 squares total.
For this pattern I will make my squares about 2” x 2”.
I use size 6 needles for this pattern, and light-medium weight yarn.

Each square is 8 stitches and 10 rows.
I knit a large edge around my chess/checker board in order for players to place their pieces there, and I think it looks nicer.
I made my edge 10 stitches on each side of the chess board.