Dec 09, 2025
Author's Commentary #3:
Time to talk about Chapter 3: The Kawaguchi chess center.
This marks the first major change between volume and original here in Volume 3 as the chess centers weren't introduced until Season 8 in the original. Obviously, given the chance, I had them debut much earlier in the story as I feel it makes more sense.
A fun tidbit about this chapter's original equivalent was that it was primarily spurned by my trip to Kawaguchi, though ironically written before I even left on it.
Getting back to the chess centers themselves, they're a concept I feel makes sense for the series as it gives cities that don't have a SPCM/DSPCM the chance to have a chess presence in the story. They can even be in cities that already have an SPCM/DSPCM. For example, in New York City there could be a chess center in Unison Square while the secret puzzle cafe is in a hotel in Times Square. It also allows the home base of Kawaguchi to have a proper chess gathering place.
As for the game, it's a Chess960 game. For those who don't know, Chess960 or Fischer Random chess, is a famous chess variant invented by 11th world chess champion and American grandmaster, Bobby Fischer. In it, the starting position of all the pieces, except for pawns, are randomized. The two opposing armies will always mirror each other though and the two bishops will always be on opposite colors. Each side also has the ability to castle as well. As for why it's called "Chess960", the reason for that is because there are 960 different possible starting positions. Chess960 is also one of the few variants to be officially recognized by FIDE and have specific tournaments for it. Considering how important it is, I naturally had to add it to the story.
The actual game featured here was actually one I discovered from an article from Chess.com highlighting some easy 960 Fool's Mate scenarios. This one was originally played between Felix-Antonio Ilinca and David Larino Nieto.
Finally, though I'm including content from Season 8 here, it's pretty much just going to be the chess center and the 960 game. Things will resume as normal with the next chapter in terms of adapting things steadily.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
