Dec 24, 2024
Author's Commentary #298:
Time to talk about Chapter 298: Santa Kļava's comin' to town.
She's making a list, and checking it twice. Gonna kick anyone's ass that cracks a Christmas joke around her. Santa Kļava's comin' to town... Alright, I admit this is a shameless clickbaity title meant solely to garner clicks, especially since I'm posting this chapter on Christmas Eve. This is also the closest things will get to a Christmas special.
While I'm sure I'll eventually do a chapter that takes place around Christmas time in the story, it won't be for a while as it's still September in the story. This is also why I refrained from making a chapter taking place on Halloween within universe, and just simply did a chapter featuring a Halloween gambit. Though I'm sure you can already predict that when Halloween does occur within the story, a Halloween gambit will be played in said chapter. Now before we do the bios for the Latvians, let's talk about the games.
First up, Japan lost to India. Arun was unphased by Okisato's attempt at mirroring Peter's Důras gambit strat, which ended up costing his team the match. Even if he hadn't played it though, Arun is just too strong and would have won, or at worst drew, the match anyway. If the latter had happened, Ginji would have likely been forced to play on, not because he wanted to, but because him resigning outright would truly cause a scandal. At this point, Ginji will only resign outright if he has no other choice, as if he doesn't, the team would have grounds to bench him for the rest of the tournament, making it much harder for him to sabotage the team.
As for the Santa vs Laura match, it features another Latvian gambit. Santa's the type that will normally put on a cheery and cutesy mask, and play in a manner befitting of that personality. But when she gets pissed, the gloves are off and she goes for her best openings, with one being the Latvian gambit. Since many don't know the lives of said gambit, it can easily catch people off guard, as was the case with Laura and Volkner. Though Volkner now knows how to counter the gambit thanks to his training from Edeltraud. And with the games covered, onto the bios.
イルゼ・バロンズ (Ilze Barons) is how Ilze's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is January 27th, which is name day for Ilze.
Her favorite piece is the king.
オースマ・ウパトニエクス (Ausma Upatnieks) is how Ausma's name is spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is June 26th, which is name day for Ausma.
Her favorite piece is the knight.
ジントラ・ズヴィルブレ (Dzintra Zvirbule) is how Dzintra's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is September 4th, which is name day for Dzintra.
Her favorite piece is the pawn.
グンデガ・カルニシュ (Gundega Kalniņš) is how Gundega's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is September 25th. This means her birthday will occur during the Chess Olympics, falling on the second scheduled rest day for the tournament.
Her favorite piece is the queen.
サンタ・クヤヴァ (Santa Kļava) is how Santa's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is December 25th, which is Christmas day.
Her favorite piece is the rook, because she likes using it as a battering ram.
Just as stated in the chapter, Santa is a name for girls in Latvia. Sinta is as well, and if you've seen all the artwork currently up, you'll know there's a Sinta Kļava out there as well. I will confirm though that the two have no relationship to each other, in fact Kļava was not even Sinta's original surname, but one she decided to adopt after hearing about Santa. And with that, I hope you enjoyed this make-shift Christmas special of a chapter.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
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