Chess Graphics Loading

I am writing a chess game for my school project..(Console game).. i am using BGI graphics, mouse support and bitmapsupport... My game is pretty built now.. the interface, move validation, mouse movments etc.. but the problem is with the image quality.. the images i have stored are very small and is 24bit BMP... they look good on paint.. but not on the console.. Here is a part of my code which reads and displays the image on the screen.... Help me display the image better..

Code:

---


void wking(int sx,int sy) \\sx and sy are the screen position to place image
{
  char a;
  ifstream ifil;
  ifil.open("C:\\project\\image\\wking.bmp", ios::in); \\image size 40 x 60
  for(int i=0;i<54;i++)ifil.get(a);
  for(i=0;i<60;i++)
    for(int j=0;j<40;j++)
    {
        ifil.get(a);
        ifil.get(a);
        ifil.get(a);
        int g=a,k;
        if(a<0)g+=256;
        k=g/16;
        setcolor(k);
        if(a!=0)putpixel(sx+j,sy+200-i,k);
    }
ifil.close();
}

---

no need for cross posting, vasanth.:)

Hmm, I could've sworn I just removed one of these!

Anyway, all answers here please.