Sep 18, 2026
Author's Commentary #931:
Time to talk about Chapter 931: A promotion match.
Before I begin, I do want to state that I am feeling much better than I did yesterday. Still not 100%, though I'd say maybe 80% or so.
Anyway, with the 46th Chess Olympiad currently underway in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, I naturally felt I had to pay homage to it. I was originally going to do a full Side Story, but well, I got sick and that went out the door. As such, I opted for just a single special chapter.
The game featured in it is almost identical to the very game Chess.com features on their homepage. It stems from the Philidor Defense and features a queen sacrifice mating trap. As such, I needed Mimoko's opponent to be low-level, hence the idea to have this all be a weird dream for her.
Speaking of which, her opponent, Dreamworld Nodirbek, as I dub him, technically isn't real yet, but the chances are high he'll actually appear for real. I'll save his bio until then.
One final thing to touch on is the Olympiad itself, or rather the in-universe Chess Olympics. I'll state it now that I have no plans to do another large-scale tournament arc like that again for the series. One reason is that story-wise, it's only February 2025 and there's no way I'm dragging things all the way out to September 2026 in-universe just to do another 200 chapter arc. Second, the main ending I have for the story is Mimoko's graduation in March 2025. Yes, this does mean that the Ultima-master showdown will be one of the final arcs of the series. Of course, Mimoko still needs to beat the rest of the maestros, so we're still a little ways away from the final arc.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
