Each chess piece is a character all its own, and are great to collect as individual sculptures. A good tip for picking one as a gift: Find one that reminds you of the personality of the person you have in mind. They're sure to enjoy it that much more!
Put these babies all together, and you've got a chess set! I have had great fun in the past making beautiful folding chess boards, each of which I painted to match the given set of pieces, while letting the beautiful wood grain show through. It just looks fantastic, with all the pieces set up on the board!
A jaw-dropping gift for the chess nut in your life!