Sep 23, 2026
Author's Commentary #936:
Time to talk about Chapter 936: Rika's wealth of knowledge.
It's Spice of Life Day, meaning the chapter releasing on it must be themed around it. Rika giving Okisato some hints was the best I could think of. However, the second half of the chapter was actually inspired by something completely different.
Recently, a story broke on Chess.com regarding the passing of a 96-year old man named, Dionisio Sganzerla, better known as Mr. Dionisio, who was said to have played chess with people at a mall in Goiânia, Brazil for 20 years. I'd sadly never heard of him until reading the article, but his story touched me so much, I decided to pay homage to him. The implication here is that both him and a parody version of himself exist in-universe, much in a similar vane to Vishy and Kasparov having Virat and Ian, respectively, as their parodies, but also exist within the EPGM-verse, just not showing up on-screen, only being mentioned in historical context and in regards to opening names. Now, let's learn a bit more about Mr. Dionysius.
ディオニュシウス・ゴイアニア (Dionysius Goiânia) is how his name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is September 6th, which is in reference to the fact that the man he's based off of, Mr. Dionisio, was 96 years old.
His favorite piece is the king.
As for the candy bit, it's another nod to Mr. Dionisio who was known to give out candy to those he played. Mr. Dionysius does the same, though Yumi's still a little too young to eat candy, so Rika instead frames the candy. In the Spice of Life 3rd-year anniversary chapter which takes place on September 23rd, 2026, Yumi's three and able to eat candy, though sadly, one of the old men who played chess with her is said to have passed. It was shortly before, so it's not like Yumi ate year-old candy. I left things ambiguous as to who that man was in the chapter, though here I'll imply that perhaps Mr. Dionysius managed to bring his friend, Mr. Dionisio, to Ryokoma to play Yumi. I won't confirm or deny anything outright, but I will say, that Mr. Dionysius is a Brazilian DSPCM, though prefers to play more out in the open during the day. At night, he's in his secret puzzle cafe at the mall in Goiânia.
One final thing I'll state is that while Mr. Dionysius does wear a purple hat and tie, it's in contrast to Mr. Dionisio's blue hat and tie he was known for wearing. Mr. Dionysius is not the infamous Grandpadaddy, who is also an old man that wears a purple hat, albeit without a purple tie. Finally, I'll confirm Mr. Dionysius won't have a major role in this arc. He's just there as a tribute to Mr. Dionisio. Finally, Happy Spice of Life Day, everyone.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
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