I'm wanting to make a chess themed cake for my BIL's birthday. I just don't know what to use for the chess pieces. I don't have access to a store to buy molds to make them out of chocolate, so I need some other ideas....you guys got any?

If you want something fairly simple, you could just cut out fondant rectangles and draw the chess pieces on to stick in the chess board.

I do know there is chocolate mold out there for the pieces though.

An idea is to make a few pieces in the two different colors then make it look like it's a game in progress. Because to me the hard part is to make all the pawns, rooks, etc. look exactly alike so if you just have one horse one bishop one queen, etc. and divide them up on each side--well you're still gonna have to have two kings but one could be laying down on the board so it's easier to disguise the fact they might not be exactly alike.

Oh, another idea is to use a theme--like Harry Potter or the Civil War so the kings could be different on purpose. Still each rook, horse etc has to look the same though but again you can mask that by creating a game in progress where pieces have been eliminated from the board.

I would use Marzipan for the pieces.

When you make the board, take a clean ruler and snuck it against finished rows on the board to straighten them* (if you make the board square by square) Or on a solid piece of fondant or whatever surface you choose you could imprint the board squares and paint them in alternating colors.
*which I obviously did not do here

I made one with a giant cookie for a base. I mean I din clean off the seams on the pieces & stuff but it was for a silent auction so...