Jul 14, 2025
Author's Commentary #400:
Time to talk about Chapter 400: Strip chess.
With a title like that, you know someone will be ending up naked in this chapter, which is perfectly in line with my 100 chapter fanservice chapter rule. It really feels like it was only a week ago that we were celebrating the series' 300th chapter, but time flies. Thank you to everyone that's supported the series thus far. And to those that are just getting into it, thanks for checking it out. You're in for a world of peak chess.
Speaking of chess, this game was a marathon. Spanning 6 chapters and totaling 60 moves, this game was by far a marathon to write. From the get-go, I wanted Iori to play the Villemson Gambit, and for Õnne to play her best, meaning I was concocting a formula for a long game. I went through many games, hoping to try and get the move count at least below 40, but that didn't happen, so I ended up going with this game. The game swinging in Iori's favor around move 12 was what ultimately proved to be the deciding factor. There were times when I was tempted to have Õnne resign, but after settling on having this game end on the 400th chapter, there was no way that was going to happen, as to align with my 100th chapter guaranteed fanservice rule, I made it so that loser would be required to strip, and since we all could probably guess Iori was gonna win, that meant Õnne would be losing. And since she would not want to strip before Iori, there's no way she'd resign.
Speaking of fanservice, in addition to Õnne being stripped nude and humiliated, Iori stripped nude too as a bonus. As for why she wasn't embarrassed in the slightest, her nudes are already online. Remember, she has a N00DZ 0nly account, which is an obvious parody of an Onlyfans account. This girl doesn't mind showing off her beautiful body. And Õnne... Well, if it were a guy making her strip, she'd be turned on, but another girl, nope. To be honest, there are times I feel Õnne's character is all over the place, with even me not knowing just what her character is supposed to be. And well, I decided to just go with that for her character.
And with that, Japan has beaten Estonia 4-0, continuing the perfect sweep streak. And to make it better, Iori dissed Õnne in Estonian. While she's no polyglot like Okisato, she was able to learn Estonian well enough in a night to properly diss Õnne in it. I really do love when the main cast decides to diss their opponents in their native languages. It really adds a new layer to the dissing.
One thing I feel now is a good time to talk about is some behind the scenes stuff in regards to who the women's team was originally set to face. Originally, England was to be the 7th round opponent, with Daria sitting out in order to rescue Ina while the Fairies were stuck playing. The original concept was that it would be a revenge match, however, I struggled to come up with good games and even dialogue for the matchup. Now in a video game adaptation of the series, England would be a possible opponent, which would be faced if certain conditions were met. But here in the so-called canon route, I decided to instead have Japan face Estonia, since the matchups looked to be much more exciting. As such, this can be taken as confirmation that Japan will not face England in any future round of the tournament. Though to make up for it, I have something really good planned in regards to the Fairy league.
Now before I end this, I have an announcement in regards to Season 1. I mentioned it a bit before, but Season 1 will now be getting new chapters and 4 new games. These chapters will focus on the games of rounds 1 and 2 of the Knightlife classic, which were skipped over in the original. These changes currently aren't implemented as of the posting of this commentary, but I imagine the updates will be complete before the end of next week. As such, I'll also be updating all the game logs, as the addition of 4 new games will naturally increase the numbers. As such, this gives me the opportunity to add more details to the older ones such as dates and such. Some chapters in Seasons 1 and 2 will also be merged so as not to mess up the chapter numbering too much. Don't worry, this will still be Chapter 400 when all the edits are complete.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone, old and new, that's supported this series. I don't know if this arc will still be ongoing by the time the series reaches it's 500th chapter, but I have a feeling it might be, especially if there's a segment of it I end up expanding by 20 chapters like I did with the Bermuda party. Here's to another 400 chapters of En Passant Grandmaster.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
