Hi 
I’m relatively new to blender, i have used other 3d programs before but with less functionality.
This is a part of my first main scene that i will make in blender, and i was looking for ideas/suggestions about how i could improve the model or the textures on it. Thanks 
Welcome, DanC to elysiun! Very nice first post! I like the board’s design. Was it fashioned after one you’ve seen, or is it your own design? The wood grain texture is very nice, but it’d be good to see “end grain” on one edge. I’d love to see an AO-only render of this scene: put in a world texture, turn its brightness & contrast all the way up, turn off all your lamps (move them to an “off” layer), then turn on AO with highest sample settings - just to see what you get. Alternately a render with yafray with an HDRI would be a treat to see! Good work as is, tho! Look forward to more from ya…
Good model.
-area light for soft shadow or Yafray GI+ 1 master spot light.
-use HDRI map for mirror.
-maybe DOF (Zblur or Yafray DOF)
Nice work, looks really good. Just a few things I see that are odd to me. Why is the board cut past the black/white tiles? Doesn’t serve a purpose, at least not one I can see. Might also want to think about beveling the edge of the bottom of the board, too sharp atm. I can’t get too good a look at each of the pieces but the “knight” and “bishop” I think still need a little work. The Bishop seems too much like the pawns, only slightly elongated head, on my chess sets that I’ve had over the years, there has always been a slit in the front angling in towards the center of the head. The Knight’s horse head didn’t look right, but as I said, I can’t see it very well in the linked image. Would it be possible to see the individual peices? Over all though your there, just some lighting stuff as the others have said and your good to go. B)
[edit]
Just noticed that the rooks/castles pieces don’t have the normal castle look to them with the up/down/up blocks on the top, that could be a style thing so if so disregard.
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Thanks for replys;
mzungu - Yeah, i used this picture for reference of the board -
the pieces were based on another picture with a few changes.
I have limited knowlege of most of blenders feathures at the moment :(, so i’m not exactly sure what a HDRI is, i will have to find out 
I know what you mean with the end grain, but im not sure how i would go about doing this, maybe a UV-map? any ideas would be welcome.
I will try rendering it with YAFray to see what the differnence is,
Dan
[EDIT]
Khnum - The Extended cuts alone the board are simply the design of the board copied from the reference - i thought they looked quite cool and made the board a little bit more interesting.
Good idea, that never occured to me, i’ll bevell it soon.
As for the pieces, i knew there was something missing on the bishop, couldnt put my finger on it though, thanks.
I had loads of trouble modelling the knight, i just couldnt get it to look correct, ill post a closer picture of the pieces
