Jun 28, 2026
Author's Commentary #28:
Time to talk about Chapter 28: Tirade of the Bloody Baron.
As stated in the previous commentary, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg is an actual historical figure, however, it's unclear whether he actually played chess. Rather, it was Kurt von Ungern-Sternberg who was actually famous for his skills in simul chess. I first learned about this thanks to an article on Chess.com a few months before writing this volume. As such, I decided to play around with history a bit for this work of fiction in order to make Jad a more menacing antagonist. Speaking of which, lets talk more about him.
ロマン・ウンゲルン (Roman Ungern) and ロマン・フョードロヴィチ・フォン・ウンゲルン＝シュテルンベルク (Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg) are how he's referred to in Japanese, while Барон Унгерн фон Штернберг (Robert Nikolaus Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg) is how it would be spelled in Mongolian. ニコライ・ロバート・マクシミリアン・フライヘル・フォン・ウンゲルン＝シュテルンベルク (Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg) is how his full name would be spelled in katakana.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
If you recall way back in his introductory bio, I listed Jad's birthday as January 10th. This is also Ungern-Sternberg's birthday, meaning that birthday served as a hint to his true identity. In the same bio, I also stated his favorite piece was the king, which makes sense in greater context as he wanted to restore both the Russian monarchy and the Mongol Empire.
Two more clues hinting at his identity were his violent nature, and Raymond name dropping his first name back when he arrived at the playing hall at the start of round 5. And as a bonus, Ulaanbaatar has been renamed. Since Ungern-Sternberg hated communists, I doubt he'd allow the capitol city of Mongolia to be named "Red Hero", especially since the name was given to the city during the formation of the Mongolian People's Republic. Now with the Ungern-Sternberg facts out of the way, on to the behind the scenes stuff with this chapter.
I think the Okisato vs Jad fight is a cinematic masterpiece, however, it was easily one of the most difficult games to write, mainly due to wavering levels of motivation. Most of that lies with the IRL Mal x Honeyfeed 2024 writing contest, which was wrapping up around the time I reached this point in the story. The other factor was the game itself being almost 60 moves. When I fist got writing it though, I was super motivated, even having a blast writing it. But I came close not to getting this chapter out in daily fashion due to me being preoccupied with other works at the time.
It all worked out though, and as a result, we get Okisato giving an epic roast of Ungern-Sterberg, who will still be known as Jad throughout the series, in Mongolian nonetheless. Okisato really struck gold when he gained the ability to learn any language with ease. He truly is a polyglot among polyglots.
One final thing I'll mention is the opening Jad played that went 1. h3 e5 2. e3, which previously went unnamed. But henceforth, it shall be dubbed the Ungern-Sternberg opening. And with that, Japan's men's team gets their first perfect victory of the tournament, while also sending the message to Mongolia that they won't be conquered. Now all that remains before the round's conclusion is to check up on some of the other teams. This was an exhausting round to write, mainly because of the behind the scenes stuff with the contest, but it all worked out. After these next few chapters, round 6 will kick off, and I promise tensions will be higher than ever as one of the Japanese teams will face its toughest opponent yet in tournament.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
