What is the easiest/best way to do a checkerboard with fondant? Would it be easier to cover the cake with white fondant and then cut out black squares or paint on black squares or is there a way to make it a checkerboard before covering the cake....
I am thinking covering the cake with white and then cutting out the black squares would be the best...I could be wrong though. Any of your advice would be great. Thanks!

I think you are right on track with covering and then adding the cut out squares. Your lines will be perfectly straight if you use a cutter and it would look much better. That is what I would do.

Not a bad idea but wouldn't the board be uneven? - the black would be slightly raised.

That is what I was thinking, that the black would be raised. I have seen it done that way before and it looks ok, but I have also seen it where it all looks like the same piece or whatever and looks really nice, just wondering of there is any easy way to do it.

when I'm doing a checkerboard tablecloth, I use blue painters tape on the fondant, and then airbrush. Thean after the first layer is done, I peel off the tape... very carefully... and put it in the oppsite direction... really works well.. take a look under my pig cake...

I cut out both black & white squares and placed the side by side for the pattern on my Twilight cake. It wasn't hard to do and all of the pieces were uniform that way.