Mar 29, 2025
Author's Commentary #393:
Time to talk about Chapter 393: A wild day out in Budapest.
Everyone's favorite bald catgirl is back, and so is Jester and even Alma. It turns out that despite not making the Japanese women's team, Alma was able to make the Uzbekistan women's team. She was primarily born and raised there, but later moved to Japan to study abroad. She is half-Japanese half-Uzbek as stated in the chapter. As for her compatriots, while many of them bear Japanese/Japanese-sounding names, they are all Uzbeks with no Japanese heritage. Speaking of which, lets do their bios along with Kato's. I also ended up editing Chapter , to include more DSPCMs. So I'll give the bios for the characters I added in here, since I don't feel like going back and editing my commentary.
ミノ・ラスロヴァ (Minoo Rasulova) is how Minoo's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is December 8th, which is Constitution Day in Uzbekistan.
Her favorite piece is the pawn.
Minoo is a gamer and professional esports player. And before anyone mentions it, yes, chess is going to be an esport, both IRL and in this world too. I imagine said real life event will undoubtably inspire a future arc in this series.
ノディラ・サビロワ (Nodira Sabirova) is how Nodira's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is October 1st, which is Teacher's Day in Uzbekistan.
Her favorite piece is the bishop.
アヤナ・タシケント (Ayana Tashkent) is how Ayana's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is September 1st, which is Independence Day in Uzbekistan.
Her favorite piece is the rook.
Ayana is one of Uzbekistan's main defenders from the Mongol hordes that constantly try to conquer it. She may not be as high-rated as some of her compatriots, but ratings don't always reflect true strength.
ウミダ・ホジャエワ (Umida Khodzhayeva) is how Umida's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is May 3rd. I chose this date at random, so there's no greater significance behind why this date is her birthday.
Her favorite piece is the knight.
モーティ・ザーカ (Morty Szarka) is how Morty's name would be spelled in katakana. His surname is Hungarian for "magpie".
His birthday is October 28th, which he shares with Hungarian grandmaster, Imre Balog.
His favorite piece is the bishop.
ナンドル・ニシュトル (Nándor Nyisztor) is how Nándor's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is May 12th, which he shares with streamer and musician, Vinny Vinesauce.
His favorite piece is the king.
グウェン・スミス (Gwen Smith) is how Gwen's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is April 1st, which is April Fool's Day.
Her favorite piece is the pawn.
喜多加藤 (Kita Kato) is how Kato's name would be written in kanji. His surname means "joy" and "many", while is name means "add" and "wisteria".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His birthday is August 8th, which makes sense since he's an octopus man.
His favorite piece is the pawn, since they remind him of Takoyaki.
To delve into the origins of Kato, and why he was with Nyoan and Jester, that's planned to be revealed in a series of one-shot novels which I plan to release at the start of April.
And now, after a month, the tournament will resume with the first chapter of round 7 being posted tomorrow. Things will work out slightly different from previous rounds as team Japan's games won't all be shown off first and at once. But that doesn't mean the games will be any less hype. Team Japan's games are also coming along nicely, so expect to see some peak chess in this next round of the tournament.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
