Agreed, for a senior project it is really easy to over-scope.
Is your goal AI? There are systems out there where you only provide the AI and the system plays against opponents.
Is your goal to make a standalone game? It is a lot more than what beginners realize but can be a great learning project.
Is your goal to showcase projects that you did in school? Maybe you did a ray tracing project and can draw a raytraced chess board. Maybe you had an emphasis on networking and want to build a networked chess game.
Use whatever you already know. You don't have much time to learn something new. Normally a senior project is about 40 hours of work, meaning a 3-4 credit hour class, but it is professionally only a single work week. If it is a full year project maybe two weeks, and you get a few hours of advice from a teacher. It can feel like the whole wide world is open to you, but really there is a fairly tight time constraint.