This is the wooden globe chessboard (technically a chessphere) built by product design student Ben Meyers. It uses magnets underneath each square to keep the pieces attached. The spherical shape looks like it would add a significant amount of difficulty to the game, making it much harder to envision exactly where all the game pieces are at one time. Personally, I think chess is already hard enough without trying to play on a globe, but that’s just me and I’m not much of a strategist. Plus I’m way more of a lover than a fighter. I tried playing Risk once and spent the majority of the game petitioning for a peace treaty, which my opponent refused so I nuked the entire planet (read: flipped the board and called my mom to come pick me up from the sleepover early).

Keep going for a video demonstration.

Source: Geekologie – Making It Harder: A Spherical Globe Chess Game