Oct 17, 2025
Author's Commentary #595:
Time to talk about Chapter 595: Scripted loss.
We're getting into the thick of it now. Even though the game was short, Mimoko's now trapped. And up until just a few minutes ago, I too felt trapped with not knowing what to do with the plot, until I realized I could use my original idea for the 600th chapter special to turn this into peak writing.
Alma was always slated to play Mimoko after Side Story 7, though her game wasn't set in stone until recently. This one I kind of feel was a lose-lose in terms of the game, as with Mimoko actually being shown how the game would play out, the chances of her making one move to offset the prediction would increase the longer the game went on. Thus, I settled on a Fool's Mate as after 1. f3, Mimoko would move her pawn to e5 regardless of the prediction. Then after that, all Alma needed to do was go 2. g4 and Mimoko had no choice but to win the game. Her pride as a chess player refused to let her pass up an easy win, and even if she had, the controversy wouldn't have gone away, and possibly gotten even worse thanks to the mysterious commentator's posts.
Now, I'm going to have to think about how to have these next few games play out. For the sake of lining up everything perfectly for the 600th chapter, I might have a match or two from this round take place after the events of it. I'm not keen on swapping around round 5 and the rest day, so that's probably what I'll go with.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.