Jumanji Inspired Chessboard

Hello All,

I had posted about this chessboard a while back for input on various aspects. I ended up keeping it pretty simple. I also ended up not being super happy with it, I've listed my issues with it below as well as some pictures of the end result. I will say though that I love the chess pieces themselves and the wood is gorgeous.

Issues:

I originally wanted to inlay wood for the dark spaces, but I ended up not being smart enough or skilled enough to manage that, so I used epoxy instead.
The next issue is kind of hard to explain in detail via text, but in short, I did some stupid things that resulted in needing to fill a lot of voids in the epoxy with black CA glue and the difference is painfully obvious.
I couldn't figure out how to sand the epoxy well enough to eliminate the scratches. Even sanding up to an extremely high grit didn't seem to do the trick. I think this is because it's not a nice flat surface that I can sand with an orbital sander. Whatever the case, the scratches are very visible in most lighting.
I'm still not sure if this one is the result of how not flat the board is or if it's my execution, but not all of the magnets are nicely centered in the spaces. I was able to make some adjustments, but it's far from perfect which really bugs me.

If I manage to find another piece of wood like this in the future that will allow me to do a second attempt, I think I'll use an epoxy paste for the dark spaces which will alleviate a lot of my issues, but I'll still need to find a way to sand better to prevent the scratches from being visible in the end result. I also have a solution for both of the potential magnet placement issues, so that will address the other big issue that bugs me. Unfortunately, I only ever really come across pieces like this when I'm on a hike and don't have a saw to cut off the right size piece and/or am miles out and don't want to haul it for the rest of the hike.