Drawing in JLayeredPane over exising JPanels

I am working on developing a Chess game. I want to have the board Container utilize a GridLayout to display an 8x8 grid of JPanels. (This will make functions such as highlighting selected squares and valid moves much easier.) I would then like to add the pieces over this layer so that they may be dragged and dropped. I initially had the pieces showing by drawing them in the individual square JPanels, but figured that would be a problem when trying to drag-and-drop them later. I have since been trying to use a JLayeredPane as the main container, but have encountered several issues.

One is that once I've specified the GridLayout for the JLayeredPane, regardless of which Integer I use to specify the layer to add the JLabel or other kind of image to, the pieces get added to the grid, making their positions set and and distorting the whole board. I have read that using LayoutManagers can interfere with layer positioning on the JLayeredPane, so this isn't too surprising. (Although the Oracle demo program from the JLayeredPane tutorial seems to do this just fine: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/examples/components/LayeredPaneDemo2Project/src/components/LayeredPaneDemo2.java)

However, I have also tried to put the grid of JPanels into its own JPanel, then add it to a low layer of the JLayeredPane, the idea being that I could add the drag & drop icons to separate, non-opaque JPanel on a higher layer of the JLayeredPane. When I do this however, after I simply have the grid JPanel inside the JLayeredPane (i.e. before the drag-and-drop layer is added), the grid will not display.

I also have tried overriding the paintComponent (and paint) methods of the JLayeredPane to draw the piece images, but they are hidden by the JPanels (I can see that they are indeed there by setting the JPanels to non-opaque) and as far as I can tell there is no option to set the layer of the graphics on the JLayeredPane. I have also tried using the glassPane of the frame to draw the pieces, but got undesired behavior there as well.

Any help explaining some of this behavior, or where I am going wrong, would be much appreciated!

Here is a simple example that shows how you might (randomly) drag and drop a "chess piece" from one square to another:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class ChessBoard extends JFrame implements MouseListener, MouseMotionListener
{
    JLayeredPane layeredPane;
    JPanel chessBoard;
    JLabel chessPiece;
    int xAdjustment;
    int yAdjustment;

    public ChessBoard()
    {
        Dimension boardSize = new Dimension(600, 600);

        //  Use a Layered Pane for this this application

        layeredPane = new JLayeredPane();
        layeredPane.setPreferredSize( boardSize );
        layeredPane.addMouseListener( this );
        layeredPane.addMouseMotionListener( this );
        getContentPane().add(layeredPane);

        //  Add a chess board to the Layered Pane

        chessBoard = new JPanel();
        chessBoard.setLayout( new GridLayout(8, 8) );
        chessBoard.setPreferredSize( boardSize );
        chessBoard.setBounds(0, 0, boardSize.width, boardSize.height);
        layeredPane.add(chessBoard, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);

        //  Build the Chess Board squares

        for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < 8; j++)
            {
                JPanel square = new JPanel( new BorderLayout() );
                square.setBackground( (i + j) % 2 == 0 ? Color.red : Color.white );
                chessBoard.add( square );
            }
        }

        // Add a few pieces to the board

        ImageIcon duke = new ImageIcon("dukewavered.gif"); // add an image here

        JLabel piece = new JLabel( duke );
        JPanel panel = (JPanel)chessBoard.getComponent( 0 );
        panel.add( piece );
        piece = new JLabel( duke );
        panel = (JPanel)chessBoard.getComponent( 15 );
        panel.add( piece );
    }

    /*
    **  Add the selected chess piece to the dragging layer so it can be moved
    */
    public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e)
    {
        chessPiece = null;
        Component c =  chessBoard.findComponentAt(e.getX(), e.getY());

        if (c instanceof JPanel) return;

        Point parentLocation = c.getParent().getLocation();
        xAdjustment = parentLocation.x - e.getX();
        yAdjustment = parentLocation.y - e.getY();
        chessPiece = (JLabel)c;
        chessPiece.setLocation(e.getX() + xAdjustment, e.getY() + yAdjustment);

        layeredPane.add(chessPiece, JLayeredPane.DRAG_LAYER);
        layeredPane.setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(Cursor.MOVE_CURSOR));
    }

    /*
    **  Move the chess piece around
    */
    public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent me)
    {
        if (chessPiece == null) return;

        //  The drag location should be within the bounds of the chess board

        int x = me.getX() + xAdjustment;
        int xMax = layeredPane.getWidth() - chessPiece.getWidth();
        x = Math.min(x, xMax);
        x = Math.max(x, 0);

        int y = me.getY() + yAdjustment;
        int yMax = layeredPane.getHeight() - chessPiece.getHeight();
        y = Math.min(y, yMax);
        y = Math.max(y, 0);

        chessPiece.setLocation(x, y);
     }

    /*
    **  Drop the chess piece back onto the chess board
    */
    public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e)
    {
        layeredPane.setCursor(null);

        if (chessPiece == null) return;

        //  Make sure the chess piece is no longer painted on the layered pane

        chessPiece.setVisible(false);
        layeredPane.remove(chessPiece);
        chessPiece.setVisible(true);

        //  The drop location should be within the bounds of the chess board

        int xMax = layeredPane.getWidth() - chessPiece.getWidth();
        int x = Math.min(e.getX(), xMax);
        x = Math.max(x, 0);

        int yMax = layeredPane.getHeight() - chessPiece.getHeight();
        int y = Math.min(e.getY(), yMax);
        y = Math.max(y, 0);

        Component c =  chessBoard.findComponentAt(x, y);

        if (c instanceof JLabel)
        {
            Container parent = c.getParent();
            parent.remove(0);
            parent.add( chessPiece );
            parent.validate();
        }
        else
        {
            Container parent = (Container)c;
            parent.add( chessPiece );
            parent.validate();
        }
    }

    public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {}
    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {}
    public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {}
    public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {}

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        JFrame frame = new ChessBoard();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE );
        frame.setResizable( false );
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo( null );
        frame.setVisible(true);
     }
}

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