Oct 25, 2024
Author's Commentary #238:
Time to talk about Chapter 238: Berlin wall overload.
This is one of the good moments from the arc as it features a game. In fact, I think it might even be the first Ruy Lopez game in the series. It is definitely the first Berlin defense game though.
For those who don't know, the Berlin defense has one of the highest draw rates in chess, thus if someone plays it, they're likely aiming for a draw. The only problem is that the Berlin defense is the best response to the Ruy Lopez. But it's only a draw if you don't blunder, and as we saw, Mari blundered.
The reason for that is that her true skill level is truly 990. I was originally going to have her be an executive board member, but decided instead to have her fabricate her executive board status and make her a pathetic villain. Burnout was the main cause behind this, though I'm not exactly too dissatisfied with this.
One thing I will reveal though is that the original game between Daria and Mari was going to be much longer as back then, Mari was still a 2900-level player. But both the daunting task of writing both the game and the buildup to it, which would have required Mari to nearly break Daria through torture, ultimately dissuaded me from pursuing it.
Now Doraaki is seemingly free and Prokrutka's after Bashame and Mari. Things are looking good, but the arc isn't over just yet. The good news though is that the quality of the arc will improve again, and not only feature some character development for Doraaki, but also a major flashback with Daria and a certain character. I hope you'll look forward to it.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
