May 10, 2025
Author's Commentary #320:
Time to talk about Chapter 320: Halloween Artiljerija.
Prior to the revisions, this chapter marked the 200th game log for the series, or at least that's what I thought. Turns out I misnumbered some of the game logs so this was technically the 199th game log. Everything's fixed with the revisions, and as such, the 200th game log milestone was surpassed in Chapter 317: Ryonousuke's schooling. But originally, I thought that there was no better way to commemorate the 200th game log than with my favorite gambit, the Halloween Gambit, which is why this game features it. I'll go more in depth on the game later, but first let's do Miralem's bio.
ミラレム・アルティリエリヤ (Miralem Artiljerija) is how his name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is February 10th, which is reportedly the day the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina is said to have first been in use from along with the flag and coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His favorite piece is the rook, since it's the most artillery like piece on the board.
And speaking of artillery, me stumbling upon the song, Bosanska Artiljerija was what ultimately led to the inspiration of not just the Bosnian teams, but a whole potential storyline as well. The song is a Bosnian folk song, and a real banger too, and inspired me enough to make Miralem's surname a homage to it. Heck, he even sings parts of the song in the chapter. You can bet that if this series ever got a video game adaptation, I'd be pushing for a rendition of Bosanska Artiljerija to be the Bosnian's theme when you face them.
Speaking of storylines, I've actually gone back and edited Chapter 282: Chess' worldwide importance, to both highlight the fact that the leaders of the Balkan nations all have DESPERs, preventing them from subjecting each other to DESPER matches, and to add in a blurb about the New Republic of Paeonia. I actually have yet to even upload art of the team as of the posting of this chapter, but it will likely be up soon, or already be up. I'll go more in depth on just what that mysterious new nation is when it becomes more relevant in the story though.
As for the game, it actually happened by chance. I was originally going to have him win with a Tennison gambit, or at the very least a successful ICBM gambit, but this game worked out thanks to the rook going full ICBM against the queen, and it wasn't too long either. It also started out with a Halloween gambit, so it was easy to decided that the game would be used for the story.
One thing I didn't enjoy about writing the game was Retskcirb, or rather, having to write his name out all the time. I at least wanted him to have a match, but after this, he probably won't have another one for a while.
But since I haven't posted the match score, that means there will still be more games to showcase in the Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Denmark match. And to offer a tease, there will finally be a game with Skaberghast playing with Black, so have fun speculating on what opening he'll play. Since Japan's already faced Denmark and can't face them again, this focus on the match might be hinting that Bosnia and Herzegovina could be Japan's next opponents on the men's side. The women's side will still be a while, but I will give one hint as to who their opponent will be for the next round, and that hint is that their opponent features the women's world chess champion herself. See if you can guess who it is before it's revealed in the story.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
