Mario Nakano 64 / Comments

Mario Nakano 64

It's a me. I'm an aspiring light novel writer hoping to one day see my works in anime form. I hope that my works at least brighten up your day and give you something to look forward to.

registered at: Jun 30, 2023

Roles

Author

Artist

Badge

gold

What is Badge?

Achievement

What is an Achievement?

Report this user

Comments

aaa

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #480:

Time to talk about Chapter 480: Team Japan vs team Croatia.
And if you thought the Croatia match was going to get cancelled, you were wrong. Vlatka's not the type to show mercy to someone she feels is in a weakened state. Though in a video game adaptation, things would become interesting.

The way round 9 would work in a hypothetical video game adaptation is that to unlock certain opponents, certain requirements would need to be fulfilled. First off, 6B would be completely optional, with team Japan not facing Finland and instead facing a opponent determined by how well you the player character, Azenira and Zago, have performed in the tournament to this point. Do 6B, and both teams will always face Finland at the start of round 9. If this option is chosen, all other teams aside from Croatia will choose not to play you out of respect for the fact you just played Finland. But if you've fulfilled the conditions to play one or both Croatian teams, meaning you've won nearly all your games up to this point, you have to play them. This means that you could get a scenario where one team has to play a second batch of opponents for the round while the other doesn't, unless of course you're doing well as both Azenira and Zago in which case you'll play both Croatian teams.

Now for the games, they're really short. With burnout and the desire to finish, not to mention the full games being quite long, I decided it was best to have the Croats resign when they reached a completely losing position. However, it's just for these first games. The others all go to checkmate, so no need to worry, peak chess still reigns supreme in this series.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:480

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #479:

Time to talk about Chapter 479: Conspiracy execution.
Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said these characters would have a brutal death. This also harkens back to why I was so stressed about this part in the season as it was the moment where I had to kill off characters. I already discussed my reasons why I chose everyone before, but now that their teammates reactions are shown, the bigger picture is revealed.

I particularly want to focus on Bulgaria as they were the team that had the most buildup to this moment. Donka hates Radina, which is why when she caught wind of 6B's true nature, she ordered Elitsa to die for her in order to bring down Radina with her. And as shown, that seemed to be the case. That being said, I might one day showcase just what happened exactly in the 6B loser brackets in a future side story, so look forward to that.

As for round 9, turns out the Finland match didn't count, and Croatia wants blood. I decided to sell the illusion this wouldn't be the case in the game logs, but now the secret's out. Finland also has to play their game proper now that they have full physical forms again. Sadly, they won't be showcased, but rest assured, these characters will be appearing again in later chapters of the story.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:479

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #478:

Time to talk about Chapter 478: Nation of evil.
We're finally on new content, though there's not really much to talk about here funnily enough. Irja plays Daria and loses. That's it. She does sing a jingle, which would likely be part of Deep Blue's theme in a game or anime adaptation.

Speaking of games, I don't really have much to say on this one. Unlike the others, it was more on the forgettable side. I did originally plan to have Mimoko face Irja and for Irja to play harder, but burnout turned down the latter while for the former, I wanted Tenju to get some spotlight and for Mimoko to sit things out.

And now, both teams have swept Finland in round 9, but things aren't over yet. To see what I mean, you'll just have to read the next chapter, which I'm happy to say is out now. In fact, the reordering and revisions have now led to 20 new chapters being released after the previous up-to-date chapter, Chapter 477: Unable to touch grass, which was then Chapter 496, was reorganized. It means my backlog has been reduced, but it's a fair trade as now some amazing chapters are uploaded and the Season will end this month rather than next. And better yet, there's more chapters to binge, so feel free to do so to get caught up with the series.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:478

Jul 11, 2025

[Game log #300]

Here's the game from Chapter 477 between Iori and Ilmi on board 4 in the Japan vs Finland match in round 9 of the Chess Olympics.

[Event "Chess Olympics"]
[Site "Budapest, Hungary"]
[Date "2024.09.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ilmi Hollo (2058)"]
[Black "Iori Ishikiridokoro (2444)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/analysis?tab=analysis"]

1. d4 b6 2. c4 Bb7 3. Nc3 e6 4. e4 Ke7 5. Bg5+ f6 6. Be3 Ke8 7. Qh5+ g6 8. Qd1 Bb4 9. Nh3 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Bxe4 11. d5 h5 12. Nf4 e5 13. Nd3 d6 14. Qb3 f5 15. Nb2 f4 16. Bd2 Nd7 17. Rd1 Kf7 18. Na4 Qh4 19. Qb5 Ngf6 20. Be2 Bxg2 21. Bxf4 exf4 22. Rg1 Rhe8 23. Rxg2 f3 24. Rd2 fxg2 25. Rb2 g1=Q+ 26. Kd2 Rxe2+ 27. Kxe2 Qhxf2+ 28. Kd3 Ne5# 0-1

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:477

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #477:

Time to talk about Chapter 477: Unable to touch grass.
You can tell I had fun with this chapter too. Ilmi is easily my favorite of the Fins on the women's side, and luckily, she's not evil. She's just an ordinary girl who was trapped in electromagnetic Finland until now. Speaking of which, let's do the bios for her and the other women as well. But first, a big PSA for the series.

Season 7 is complete, and so are the major revisions I did for the 6B arc. If you were reading daily before said revisions, this chapter is where you should be as it was the final one I had uploaded before doing the revisions. Now if you weren't, no need to worry, you're all caught up now before the new stuff.

Speaking of new, this also marks the final original Author's Commentary, meaning I now have to write out 20 whole new ones and update the Game logs. But it's fine. Season 7 now has a definite end date, and I couldn't be happier to finally have everything written. I'll try my best to get all the commentaries back up to date as soon as I can. Now for the bios.

ヴィルピ・ラトバラ (Virpi Latvala) is how Virpi's name would be spelled in katakana.

Her birthday is February 9th, which she shares with Finnish honorary grandmaster, Eero Böök.

Her favorite piece is the rook.

ヌーラ・ガレン・カッレラ (Noora Gallen-Kallela) is how Noora's name would be spelled in katakana.

Her birthday is February 27th, which she shares with Finnish grandmaster, Heikki Westerinen.

Her favorite piece is the king.

Some of you might recall that Noora's design was originally used for the then Dr. Yanmin Van Aitzema of the Babylonian women's team. Just like I said, her design was not trashed and now belongs to Noora.

ピルッコ・エスコ (Pirkko Esko) is how Pirkko's name would be spelled in katakana.

Her birthday is April 3rd, which she shares with Finnish grandmaster, Tomi Nybäck.

Her favorite piece is the pawn.

Pirkko's design has also been in reserve for a while, but I can't remember if I poster her design in any team artworks prior to this.

イルミ・ホロ (Ilmi Hollo) is how Ilmi's name would be spelled in katakana.

Her birthday is October 24th, which she shares with Finnish grandmaster, Jouni Yrjölä.

Her favorite piece is the queen.

As for the game, it's special in the fact that it's part of the series' 300th Game log. Iori's new opening was also something new, and ended up making the game interesting. And speaking of milestones, the series' 500th chapter will be coming up soon. It'll just barely manage to sneak into Season 7. In fact, it'll actually feature the last game in the season as the final game in round 11 is slated to conclude in the chapter just before it.

One final thing I'll confirm about Ilmi is that she will become a DSPCM. However, since she wasn't a DSPCM now when she was beaten, Iori will have to rematch her to get the accolades from beating her. This will also be officially stated within the story.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:477

Jul 11, 2025

[Game log #299]

Here's the game from Chapter 476 between the masked man and Roope on board 4 in the Japan vs Finland match in round 9 of the Chess Olympics.

[Event "Chess Olympics"]
[Site "Budapest, Hungary"]
[Date "2024.09.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Roope Morottaja (1996)"]
[Black "The masked man (101)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/analysis?tab=analysis"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. Bc4 fxe4 4. Nxe5 Qg5 5. Nf7 Qxg2 6. Rf1 Nf6 7. Nxh8 d5 8. Bxd5 Bg4 9. f3 Bh3 10. Rf2 Qg1+ 11. Ke2 Qxd1+ 12. Kxd1 Nxd5 13. fxe4 Nf6 14. d3 Bc5 15. Re2 Bg4 0-1

If the game continued:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. Bc4 fxe4 4. Nxe5 Qg5 5. Nf7 Qxg2 6. Rf1 Nf6 7. Nxh8 d5 8. Bxd5 Bg4 9. f3 Bh3 10. Rf2 Qg1+ 11. Ke2 Qxd1+ 12. Kxd1 Nxd5 13. fxe4 Nf6 14. d3 Bc5 15. Re2 Bg4 16. Bf4 Nc6 17. Bxc7 Rc8 18. Bf4 Nd4 19. Nc3 Bb4 20. Bd2 Bxc3 21. bxc3 Nxe2 22. c4 Nd4+ 23. Kc1 Kf8 24. e5 Nd7 25. Be3 Nc6 26. Rb1 b6 27. d4 Na5 28. c5 Be6 29. Rb5 Nc4 30. Bf2 bxc5 31. Rb7 cxd4 32. Bxd4 Na5 33. Rxa7 Nc6 34. Ra4 Nxd4 35. Rxd4 Ke7 36. a4 Rxh8 37. a5 Ra8 38. Ra4 Ra6 39. Kd2 Nxe5 40. Ke2 Nc4 41. Ke1 Kf6 42. h4 Rxa5 43. Rxa5 Nxa5 44. Kd2 h5 45. Ke3 Nc4+ 46. Kd4 Ne5 47. Ke3 Kf5 48. c3 Nc4+ 49. Kf3 g5 50. hxg5 Kxg5 51. Kg3 Bd5 52. Kh3 h4 53. Kh2 Kg4 54. Kg1 Bf3 55. Kf1 Kg3 56. Kg1 Nd2 57. c4 h3 58. c5 h2# 0-1

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:476

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #476:

Time to talk about Chapter 476: Lamp oil, rope, poisoned pawns.
Finnish bootleg Morshu is here, folks. Now is the time to dig up that Morshu text-to-speech app and use it or at the very least, imagine Morshu's voice or one just like it, coming from his mouth. Speaking of which, I think one of the reasons Morshu can say so many things using just his line from the game is because he says every syllable or something in the two lines he has, making it possible to make him say anything just by copy/pasting those lines. But enough talk of trivia here, let's do proper bios for the Finnish boys.

ユハペッカ・ヨエンスー (Juha-Pekka Joensuu) is how Juha-Pekka's name would be written in katakana.

His birthday is May 1st, which he shares with JP from Street Fighter 6.

His favorite piece is the bishop.

To be honest, his name is the only standout feature about him other than the fact that he's emo.

オイバ・フースコネン (Oiva Huuskonen) is how Oiva's name would be written in katakana.

His birthday is May 21st. I chose this date at random, so there's no greater significance behind why this date is his birthday.

His favorite piece is the queen.

Oica's the femboy of the bunch, and like Juha-Pekka, doesn't have much development.

ルーペ・モロッタヤ (Roope Morottaja) is how Roope's name would be spelled in katakana.

His birthday is October 10th, which is the day Link: The Faces of Evil was first released.

His favorite piece is the pawn.

In case it wasn't obvious, this guy's a full blown reference to Morshu from the Legend of Zelda. Even references Mortar, the parody character of Morshu from Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore. This all came about because his name literally translates to "rope", and as we all know, Morshu sells lamp oil, rope, and bombs as long as you have enough rupees.

As for the game, it was short, but I wanted to make sure it had a poisoned pawn variation so that I could make the chapter title work. Since the Latvian Gambit had one such variant, I went with that. Now I really am starting to get curious how frequently this gambit has been played. I want to say around 5 or 6, but it could be a little more.

And now, the men have gotten their first perfect sweep of the tournament. All that remains is for the women to do so, and then we get closer to the final act of this arc in the series.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:476

Jul 11, 2025

[Game log #298]

Here's the game from Chapter 475 between Okisato and Flavio on board 1 in the Japan vs Finland match in round 9 of the Chess Olympics.

[Event "Chess Olympics"]
[Site "Budapest, Hungary"]
[Date "2024.09.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Flavio Baltho (2327)"]
[Black "Okisato Tanabe (2700)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/analysis?tab=analysis"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. exf5 e4 4. Ne5 Nf6 5. d4 d6 6. Ng4 Bxf5 7. Nxf6+ Qxf6 8. Be3 d5 9. Nc3 c6 10. h4 Nd7 11. Bg5 Qe6 12. Be2 Nf6 13. Bf4 Bb4 14. a3 Ba5 15. b4 Bd8 16. O-O O-O 17. Be5 Ng4 18. Bg3 Qg6 19. b5 Nxf2 20. Bxf2 Bh3 21. g3 Rxf2 22. Kxf2 Bc7 23. g4 Rf8+ 24. Ke1 Rxf1+ 25. Bxf1 Bg3+ 26. Kd2 Qh6+ 27. g5 Bf4+ 28. Ke2 Bg4+ 29. Kf2 Qxh4+ 30. Kg2 Qh2# 0-1

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:475

Jul 11, 2025

Surprise! Turns out there was one more team yet to be revealed, the nation of Finland. For obvious reasons, I decided to hold off on adding them to the team post back in Chapter 259, but since they've been revealed, I'll repost the links to all the team artwork with Finland factored into the average rating list. This is the true team master list for the women's side.

Women's teams ordered by average rating:

1. United States of America (average rating: 2661.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19740

2. German Empire of Prussia (average rating: 2613): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19763

3. Japan (average rating: 2595): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20738

4. Norway (average rating: 2594.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19777

5. India (average rating: 2562.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19743

6. China (average rating: 2511.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19747

7. Hungary (average rating: 2504.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20573

8. Ukraine (average rating: 2503.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20731

9. Russia (average rating: 2458.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20730

10. Georgia (average rating: 2428): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19703

11. Netherlands (average rating: 2422): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19778

12. France (average rating: 2410.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19765

13. Israeli Kingdom of Simien (average rating: 2409): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20287

14. Poland (average rating: 2400.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19767

15. Neo Kingdom of Egypt (average rating: 2394.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19773

16. Azerbaijan (average rating: 2385.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19751

17. Kazakhstan (average rating: 2384.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20729

18. Spain (average rating: 2354): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20727

19. Bulgaria (average rating: 2353.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20259

20. Romania (average rating: 2350.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20732

21. England (average rating: 2347.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19776

22. Armenia (average rating: 2326.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19770

23. Italy (average rating: 2324.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19779

24. Denmark (average rating: 2305.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20722

25. Estonia (average rating: 2269.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20733

26. Switzerland (average rating: 2263.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20468

27. Türkiye (average rating: 2257.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19702

28. Greece (average rating: 2254.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20333

29. Vietnam (average rating 2246.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19707

30. New Empire of Mongolia (average rating: 2241.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19752

31. Montenegro (average rating: 2237.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20982

32. Argentina (average rating: 2225): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20728

33. New Republic of Paeonia (average rating: 2214): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19758

34. Serbia (average rating: 2202.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20981

35. Sweden (average rating: 2201.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20723

36. Ireland (average rating: 2178.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19929

37. Belgium (average rating: 2169): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19769

38. Latvia (average rating: 2166.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20332

39. Neo-Babylonian Empire (average rating: 2161.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20725

40. Czechoslovakia (average rating: 2155.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19760

41. Ecuador (average rating: 2151): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19756

42. Uzbekistan (average rating: 2147): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20980

43. Croatia (average rating: 2146.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19603

44. Brazil (average rating: 2143.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20334

45. Peru (average rating: 2128.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19759

46. Antarctica (average rating: 2094): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19757

47. Lithuania (average rating: 2093.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20448

48. South Africa (average rating: 2086.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19705

49. Australia (average rating: 2084.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20253

50. Philippines (average rating: 2082): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20164

51. Austria (average rating: 2080.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19741

52. Åland Islands (average rating: 2072.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19755

53. New Zealand (average rating: 2073.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20719

54. Ethiopia (average rating: 2029.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19785

55. Finland (average rating: 2025.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/21120

56. Portugal (average rating: 2008.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19700

57. Scotland (average rating: 1999): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20254

58. Canada (average rating: 1997.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19750

59. Bosnia and Herzegovina (average rating: 1987.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20208

60. Mexico (average rating: 1986): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19928

61. Albania (average rating: 1968.6): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19606

62. Chile (average rating: 1960.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20165

63. Iceland (average rating: 1930.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20256

64. Indonesia (average rating: 1876.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19780

65. Wales (average rating: 1873.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/19017

66. Tanzania (average rating: 1863.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20250

67. Republic of Korea (average rating: 1778): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20252

68. Pakistan (average rating: 1768.4): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20724

69. Northern Ireland (average rating: 1777): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/18824

70. Moldova (average rating: 1776.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20734

71. Kosovo (average rating: 1696): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20249

72. Greater Federal Republic of Central America (average rating: 1633.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20737

73. Palau (average rating: 1606.2): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20736

74. Uruguay (average rating: 1426.8): https://www.honeyfeed.fm/novel_images/20735

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:474

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #475:

Time to talk about Chapter 475: Rivoltante.
I really had lots of fun writing this chapter. Okisato absolutely decimating Flavio had me grinning the whole way through. In fact, this moment was incredibly refreshing for me and helped motivate me to write out the rest of the round 9 games and finish up 6B.

The game also featured a Latvian Gambit, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite openings for Black. That combined with Okisato dissing Flavio the whole way through make this a top contender to be in my top 30 favorite games list.

Now let's talk about some series revisions and behind the scenes bits. First off, I'm changing the location of Triple cedar from Tochigi City to Nikko, mainly because I feel Nikko fits better. Tochigi City will still make it's way back into the story as the main setting for a future arc I have planned. And speaking of arcs, Season 7 is on the cusp of being completed. Aside from the game for the 500 chapter special, I just have a single game left to write and then wrapping up Season 7 will be a breeze. This means that I'll be editing the chapter order meaning the latest chapter will not be the one many readers will be on if they read day-to-day. I'll post an announcement when that happens though.

One final thing in the chapter I need to talk about is Flavio slamming the table. In case some of you didn't know, it stems from a incident that occurred at Norway Chess 2025 where after blundering into a losing position against Gukesh, Magnus Carlsen angrily slammed the table before resigning. The moment has spawned countless memes, and with this series being a chess one, I naturally had to reference it. And reference it I did, as this instance with Flavio most certainly won't be the only time I reference it in the story.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:475

Jul 11, 2025

[Game log #297]

Here's the game from Chapter 474 between Tenju and Virpi on board 2 in the Japan vs Finland match in round 9 of the Chess Olympics.

[Event "Chess Olympics"]
[Site "Budapest, Hungary"]
[Date "2024.09.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "SPCM Himitsuue (Tenju Kuroshiro) (2222)"]
[Black "Virpi Latvala (1861)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/analysis?tab=analysis"]

1. Nf3 e5 2. Nxe5 Qh4 3. d4 Nc6 4. Nf3 Qe7 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. e4 d5 7. e5 Bg4 8. Be2 Bxf3 9. exf6 1-0

If the game had continued:

1. Nf3 e5 2. Nxe5 Qh4 3. d4 Nc6 4. Nf3 Qe7 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. e4 d5 7. e5 Bg4 8. Be2 Bxf3 9. exf6 Qe6 10. gxf3 O-O-O 11. fxg7 Bxg7 12. Be3 Qf6 13. Qd3 Nxd4 14. Qxd4 Qxd4 15. Bxd4 Bxd4 16. Rd1 c5 17. Rg1 Rhe8 18. Kf1 a6 19. Rg5 Kb8 20. Rxd5 Rxd5 21. Nxd5 Rd8 22. Nb6 Kc7 23. Nc4 b5 24. c3 Bf6 25. Ne3 Be5 26. f4 Bh8 27. Nd5+ Kb7 28. Bf3 Kb8 29. Re1 b4 30. cxb4 c4 31. Re7 Bd4 32. Rxf7 a5 33. bxa5 Rd6 34. Nb6 Bxb6 35. Rb7+ Kc8 36. Rxb6 Rd2 37. a6 Rd8 38. a7 Kc7 39. Rb7+ Kd6 40. Rb8 Rxb8 41. axb8=Q+ Kc5 42. a3 h6 43. Qb4+ Kd4 44. Qd6# 1-0

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:474

Jul 11, 2025

[Game log #296]

Here's the practice game from Chapter 473 between Iori and Okisato.

[Event "N/A"]
[Site "Budapest, Hungary"]
[Date "2024.09.25"]
[Round "N/A"]
[White "Okisato Tanabe"]
[Black "Iori Ishikiridokoro"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/analysis?tab=analysis"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. g3 Kd7 7. e5 Ng8 8. Bf4 Nc6 9. Bg2 Nxe5 10. Bxe5 Ke8 11. Nb3 dxe5 12. Qxd8+ Kxd8 13. O-O-O+ Kc7 14. Nd5+ Kb8 15. Nb6 Ra7 16. Rd8 Nf6 17. Rxc8# 1-0

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:473

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #474:

Time to talk about Chapter 474: Deep Blue.
Finally, I can talk more in depth on so many of the plot points I've been sitting on. Everyone, meet Deep Blue, the second major antagonistic faction to grace the series, third if we count the Fairies, but they're not as big a threat as the Desperados or Deep Blue. As stated before when Deep Blue was first hinted at and within the chapter itself, Deep Blue takes it's name from the supercomputer that famously beat then-world champion, Garry Kasparov, in a chess match.

This Deep Blue also has a computer affinity as 99% of it's members based in it's home nation of Finland are digitized and can only regain physical forms through either possessing someone and using them as a conduit, or getting a special battery pack. The conduit thing is like how the edo tensei from Naruto works, except they can ditch the corpse after a little bit and not only retain their digital power but also have a proper physical form. Of course, the ones used as conduits die, and brutally too.

This was probably the big reason I ended up procrastinating with 6B because choosing which characters would die is a pretty big deal. Lorna, Trudy, Ye-bin, and Ju-hye were planned from the start to die, but the others were last-second decisions. For the longest time, I was planning on having Alya and Olga die, mainly for shock value, but with how little development Alya got coupled with how I'd have to asspull to make her and Olga lose made me decide to have them not participate in 6B at all.

Laura and Isabella were another pair I considered, though I decided to go against it. The main reason for this was that like Alya, I was mainly going to kill her for shock value, but would have been able to justify her loss due to Isabella being corrupted and throwing games intentionally. What made me go against it though was because I wanted to do more with Laura's character. Though in a video game adaptation, they would die if you failed to complete certain missions while team Tanzania wouldn't even show up unless you fulfilled the requirements to save Laura.

Speaking of Tanzania, they were a pure last-second choice. What ultimately made me go with them was the story value and arcs their teammates could go through as a result of this. Linet wasn't exactly very developed, but Aisha was a DSPCM, and a core component of team Tanzania's story.

Bulgaria I had toyed around with for a bit, but went back and forth on. Obviously I seemed to have settled on that, though I will confirm Radina will appear in flashback chapters. I'll also likely do a side story on her too, so look forward to that.

Now that Deep Blue is here, they are serving as the 9th round opponents for both Japanese teams as Finland. It is worth noting that there is no control over who is able to gain freedom to have a physical body again, which can lead to some non-Olavi loyalists getting out. A majority of the Fins here are anti-Olavi, though not all of them such as Flavio and Irja. Speaking of which, both Olavi and Irja gained their physical bodies back early on, though mainly because they didn't subject themselves to the exact same experiment they subjected the Finnish populace to.

As for the game, this one's a really short one, but I promise this next game between Okisato and Flavio will be amazing. In fact, that's the very game I've mentioned that I had lots of fun writing.

The only final thing to note is that now that Deep Blue has been revealed, I can finally upload the team art of Finland's women's team that I've been sitting on for months. All this time, I've been including the Finnish teams in my counts, yet been holding off on revealing them until now. Thus, the final team counts will be 74 for the women and 36 for the men for a nice even total of 110 teams. And with 5 members per team, that's 550 characters to juggle, not to mention all the other characters already created. And I'm still creating new characters for this upcoming arc.

Speaking of which, Season 7 is almost done. Now I've just got 8 chapters to write before I can edit everything into place. This means that the events being uploaded now for round 9 will happen in earlier chapters. Don't worry, I'll post the proper rearrangement guide once everything's uploaded. That also means the skip guide for Pre 6B won't be necessary. But as a plus, the season will end weeks sooner, and we'll be able to get into the next arc of the series.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:474

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #473:

Time to talk about Chapter 473: Late night planning.
I'll admit, the whole point of this chapter was to have a game be featured on Okisato's birthday. The ironic thing is that after the revisions, the chapter I originally wanted to take place on his birthday now does.

To briefly touch on the game, it's a practice game, which I'll have to hold off on discussing too much on now as doing so would spoil some things in round 9. But what I can talk about is that team Japan will be playing Croatia in both sections for round 9. On this, I'll admit I only finalized it following the creation of Croatia's men's team around April. With all the games now written for round 9, I can say that I feel some of the latter ones were a bit rushed, but there is some good payoff in them. There were also some games I had lots of fun writing, so I hope you're looking forward to those. As for the rest of the season, it's obviously fully written at his point. As such, I can offer much clearer pictures on how things will play out. For now, I'll simply mention that after round 9, you'll want to get hyped for round 10 since it will feature some of the most landmark games in the whole story.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:473

Jul 11, 2025

Author's Commentary #472:

Time to talk about Chapter 472: Return to Budapest.
Originally, this was going to be the finale of the Kaylee fight, but I decided to just have it be all one chapter. This chapter was originally longer, but I decided to split it up in lieu of the Kaylee fight being merged in the original drafts. But in the revision, I merged this back up with what was once titled, If I only remembered my hammer. Not really much to talk about with this one other than some of the characters have hair again and the very beginning of the chapter with Irja and Phantom.

That bit was actually added in only after I decided to merge the Kaylee fight both to pad out this chapter and tease some future plot points. It's ironic that to the reader, Phantom is a complete bag of mystery while to me the author, I've known everything about this character since the start.

The second half of the chapter focuses on checking in on some of the players following 6B. That being said, I do humor the theorycrafting with Kaylee a bit, hinting that just maybe, she was Chaya this whole time.

And with that, 6B is finally done. Originally spanning from chapters 449-484, for Pre 6B and 485-491 for 6B, the arc is now simply named, 6B, and spans from chapters 449-472. This is far more tolerable to me as my biggest issue before was the padding and sparseness of games. Now the arc which was once my most despised arc has been redeemed. That means Side Story 6 has reclaimed it's spot as my least favorite arc in the series.

And now, I'm pleased to say that round 9 will begin shortly. I had lots of fun writing some of these chapters for the round, with some of them helping me get over the burnout I was suffering from while writing the original Pre 6B and 6B. Like with a majority of the other rounds, this one has been planned since the start, so you don't need to worry about anything like the stuff that happened on the men's side of things in round 7 of the tournament.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

En Passant Grandmaster

Chapter:472

Mario Nakano 64

Novels

Gallery

Comments

Reviews

aaa