Nov 28, 2024
Author's Commentary #272:
Time to talk about Chapter 272: Prelude to round 2 of the Chess Olympics.
Once again, there's a new team on the scene, meaning it's time to do their bios. But first, I'll make note that unlike the last pre-round chapter, this one gives a brief focus to some of the other teams playing aside from our protagonists' teams. Perhaps this is an indicator that there will be some small focus on them as well, but I will leave it at that. Now onto the bios starting with Iceland's board number one himself, Ragnar Fúinn.
ラグナル・フイン (Ragnar Fúinn) is how his name is spelled in katakana. His surname, Fúinn is actually Icelandic for "rotten", which is fitting since he's a homage to Robby Rotten, aka Glanni Glæpur, from LazyTown.
His birthday is July 10th, which he shares with Stefán Karl Stefansson, the actor who played Robbie Rotten.
His favorite piece is the knight, as it has the greatest versatility when paired with his cheating. His rating of 2576 is also a nice nod to the fact that episode 76 of LazyTown is "Robbie's Dream Team", the episode which contains the famous, "We Are Number One" song.
Since he's a homage to Robbie Rotten, I figured that he'd have to be a cheater. I will confirm though that he never uses electronics to cheat, preferring to simply try and get away with making illegal moves or slightly moving pieces around when no one's looking to gain an advantage.
スポーツレガー・ブロツィルジ(Sportlegur Blótsyrði) is how Sportlegur's name is spelled in katakana. His name in Icelandic is a pun and roughly translates to "sporty swear word". He is meant to be a homage to Sportacus, aka Íþróttaálfurinn, from LazyTown.
His birthday is November 10th, which he shares with LazyTown series creator and the actor that plays Sportacus, Magnús Scheving.
His favorite piece is the queen, as it can move the most spaces, and is thus considered the fittest piece on the board by him. His rating of 2577 is meant to reference the fact that LazyTown has a total of 77 episodes, excluding the pilot episode, as of this date.
While Sportlegur is more evil than the character he's paying homage to, he does tend to cheat the least out of the bunch, never doing so when he himself is playing. But he will happily cheat in order to help out his teammates.
レーニンギ・ショーレンギ (Ræningi Sjóræningi) is how Ræningi's name is spelled in katakana. His name in Icelandic is a pun and roughly translates to "robber pirate". He's a homage to Rottenbeard, a persona Robbie Rotten donned in LazyTown.
His birthday is January 12th, which is a clever reference to the fact that the LazyTown episode "Rottenbeard" was Season 1 Episode 12. His rating of 2512 is also a refence to the episode's number.
His favorite piece is the rook, as they remind him of cannons.
I guess in a sense, he's also technically a homage to Robbie Rotten, but more specifically to his Rottenbeard persona. Like Ragnar, he prefers to cheat through non-electronic means.
ストレスズゥル・スターフスマズル (Stressaður Starfsmaður) is how Stressaður's name is spelled in katakana. His name is an Icelandic pun for "stressed employee".
His birthday is May 29th, which he shares with Icelandic grandmaster, and current number one Icelandic chess player, Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson.
His favorite piece is the pawn, mainly because he believes he is one.
Unlike the others, Stressaður doesn't cheat, at least not of his own volition as he often finds himself at the mercy of his teammates. He's essentially an overworked employee both at his day job and when forced to put up with his teammates shenanigans. Funnily enough, he could be considered a LazyTown reference as well, though more so to the episodes that deal with getting proper sleep, as Stressaður is a walking specimen of sleep deprivation.
キョフン・グリマ (Köfun Gríma) is how Köfun's name is spelled in katakana. His name is Icelandic for "diving mask".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His birthday is August 7th, which is a reference to the fact that the first Endless Ocean game released in August of 2007.
His favorite piece is the king, mainly because he views it as a treasure of the deep.
Unlike the others, he's not really a homage to LazyTown, or anything for that matter. Rather, he simply came to be because I needed a 5th character for the team and after playing around with some of the preexisting character models, I created him. I decided to theme him around scuba after noting that his beard looked like a scuba mask, hence why he has the name that he does.
And with that, all the members of the Icelandic men's team have their bios done. Though before the match between them and Japan's men's team starts, things will first shift over to the women's side, where the equally thrilling match between Japan and Italy is set to begin. One final thing I'll mention though is that in the real-life 45th Chess Olympiad, Japan's men's team did actually face Iceland, but it was in round 10 instead of round 2. Believe it or not, I didn't know about this until after I had already written all the chapters containing the match-ups. But when I did find out about it, I was amazed at how good a reference to the match the chapters ended up being. So if you want some potential insight on how the match in the story could play out, feel free to look up the Japan vs Iceland match from the 45th Chess Olympiad as it will most certainly offer insight as to what will unfold in theses upcoming chapters.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
