Jun 29, 2026
Author's Commentary #31:
Time to talk about Chapter 31: Symphony of the Black Mustang minefield.
Easily one of my favorite chapter titles, and it's packed to the brim with stuff. Skaberghast is playing as Black against Ognjen, and naturally destroys him. While Denmark will likely lose the match, it doesn't make Ognjen's loss any less humiliating for him. Speaking of which, let's talk about him as well as all the other characters introduced this chapter.
トヴルトコ・アルティリエリヤ (Tvrtko Artiljerija) is how Tvrtko's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is February 4th, which is the day the design for the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted.
His favorite piece is the rook, since it's the artillery piece of the chessboard.
Tvrtko's a grizzled Bosniack, who not only served in the Bosnian War, but also served as the Bosniack co-leader of Bosnia and Herzegovina before passing the role onto Miralem. He's now actually the DSCPM of Sarajevo, and is semi-retired from politics.
レフィク・オスマナギッチ (Refik Osmanagić) is how Refik's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is June 1st, which he shares with Bosnian businessman, Semir Osmanagić.
His favorite piece is the pawn, because they can form the strongest of pyramids.
Refik is easily my favorite of the Bosnians, mainly because he's just funny conehead Bosnian pyramid guy. He's an obvious parody of and homage to Semir Osmanagić, who's most famous for his Bosnian pyramid claims. For those who don't know, Osmanagić claims the natural hills in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, contain pyramids. Refik claims the same thing and then some, even to be the distant cousin of Semir Osmanagić himself.
セヤド・ヴァレシャノヴィッチ (Sejad Varešanović) Is how Sejad's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is September 20th. I chose the date at random, so there's no greater significance behind why this date is his birthday.
His favorite piece is the rook, as it's representative of Bosnian artillery in his eyes.
In contrast to the others, Sejad is actually the most chill and uneccentric of the bunch. That being said, he still has a tendency to leap in the air and shout "Artiljerija" when about to throw a punch or make an artiljerija-style piece capture on the board.
オグニェン・エレゾヴィッチ (Ognjen Elezović) is how Ognjen's name would be spelled in Japanese. Огњен Елезовић (Ognjen Elezović) is how his name would be spelled in Serbian (Cyrillic).
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His birthday is April 6th, which he shares with Bosnian grandmaster, Borki Predojević.
His favorite piece is the king, because he considers himself a refined ruler.
As stated in the chapter, Ognjen is a Bosnian-Serb. If you know anything about Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Balkans as a whole, you'll know ethnic tensions are pretty bad there. While things will be toned down in the story, tensions will still remain.
As for the game, it has an interesting backstory. It starts out with the Zukertort Opening: Black Mustang Defense, before becoming a minefield of a game, hence the chapter title. And in this position, the Chess.com bot opponent blundered multiple times, the most surprising one being at the end with the mate in 3. That alone made it worth considering for use for this clash. Now the score is even and all will come down to the remaining boards.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
