Kuroko's Chess

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Shizune
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Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:10 pm
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Kuroko's Chess

Post by Shizune »

So I recently got into the anime Kuroko's basketball and thought: how cool would it be to have a shounen sports light novel that makes you want to play chess the moment you see it?


I'm not sure how to incorporate chess tactics/strategy without boring the readers to death, (probably insert witty metaphors for each game?), but that aside, we could have high school players with each of their own unique, interesting skills just the same as the generation of miracles. Here are some of the characters I'm thinking.


3 most crucial characters


Rei
Spoiler! :
Rei - the reigning junior world champion. Not the protagonist, but nonetheless regarded as the strongest player in-universe. He studied formally under the Grandmaster Amane, the 16th strongest GM in the world, and he was practically unbeatable among his peers. He was born blind and so could not play any of the physical sports. He has taken a liking to chess since it is the only game he can play on equal terms with everyone else. Unfortunately, the disease that afflicted his eyes has turned for the worse, and he died before he could reach adulthood, leaving behind an unbeatable chess legacy at the age of only 14.


Anasthese
Spoiler! :
Female Lead - we all know she's just here for waifu expansion pack purposes, but setting that aside, she'd be the hot-headed Kagami equivalent who aims, and will stop at nothing, to prove that women can be just as good at chess as men.

If there is a round robin tournament where males and females are separated into different categories, she'd disguise herself as a boy, enter, beat everyone else, and leave with a laugh after she's proven her point. (not to be sexist, but I've read somewhere that statistically, male GM's have higher average rating than females)

She's the strongest female, and Rei is the strongest male. The two were both geniuses, far and wide above everyone else. No one could hope to even hold a candle to them. But even being #1, she was still far behind Rei. She could not beat him, and so, knowing that he was about to die, she could not help but feel frustrated at the thought of never ever surpassing him anymore. She'll always be second best. On Rei's deathbed, the two have a discussion, wherein Rei tells her of the most brilliant game he ever played. To her, it looked like just a normal game, but Rei assures her that it is beyond genius, and that his opponent then was a far scarier player (the protagonist) than Rei ever will be. It was a fellow student of Amane, and Rei confirms that against this person, he had never won anything other than the game shown.

She was skeptical at first. Rei was, and always had been, the reigning champion. If even she couldn't beat him, how could anyone possibly do so. If someone could beat him, they'd easily make the chess headlines. It has to be a fluke.

Still, deep down, Rei was never coming back, and if, hypothetically, if there was one person who could have beaten Rei, it makes sense for him to be another of Amane's apprentices. She'll never beat Rei, and she'll never surpass his record now, but she would settle for taking this person's king instead. It's the next closest thing. So she tracked down the address and ended up meeting the protagonist.



Net
Spoiler! :
Protagonist - the main star of the show should rightfully be the player with the most unique, enigmatic and unimaginable of all skills. Just like Kuroko's phantom passes, I'm thinking being a swindler should fit the prestige of that title here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swindle_(chess)

A swindle is a last-ditch attempt at avoiding defeat. Basically he does not play very solidly or seriously during the beginning of most games, and it's only when he's about to lose that he uses all his power to turn that loss into atleast a draw. No one particularly seems to regard him as a strong player at first, that is, until someone points out his rather annoying and nasty talent at avoiding losses. He's regarded as like a very slippery octupus who understands his opponents psychology wriggles out just as he's about to be cornered.

Most of his plays will rely on amazing, unexpected draws.

Before he met Amane, he was an orphan, and the fellow kids at the orphanage did not like it when they lose at chess. Not surprising, considering that the protagonist did have some natural talent to begin with. But when he won, the other children would become wary of him. He was afraid they would end up hating him, so he devised a technique of letting them look like they're winning first. That way, even though he pulls out the victory from right under their noses, they still end up feeling like they were only an inch away from beating him, and that makes them satisfied. It's a way to play chess where everyone feels happy. It's like making peace out of a battlefield.

Not even Rei was able to dent this resolve, and now, for the most part of the direction this story is taking, female lead is having a philosophical battle with the protagonist. She believes everyone should show no mercy during a match; not giving it your best is basically disrespecting the opponent - even when she lost to Rei, she still respected him for not pulling his punches on a girl. On the other hand, protagonist argues that winning is pointless; winning has no value whatsoever any more than trophies and medals could buy you groceries for the next day. To him, the true beauty of chess is in the brilliance of the moves played, and to the most dazzling, awe-inspiring game the world has seen, it doesn't matter who won. Both players are already winners in producing such a masterpiece.

Auxiliary Powers


Speed
Spoiler! :
Time Control - We could have one player whose time never goes down below the original value, it even goes up. He plays his moves so quickly and readily that in a standard 15|10 game, he'd end it with 20 minutes to spare. It would be quite the feat for the protagonists just to make him think and so much as use one minute of his clock for once.

I see this as the equivalent of Yosen not letting their opponents score even one point, winning 80-0 for several matches in the winter cup.



Money
Spoiler! :
Gambler - street chess. Lazy like Aomine. Doesn't take the game seriously at all when there's nothing at stake, but once there's money on the line, you instantly find their focus sharpening a thousand-fold


Nendroid
Spoiler! :
Doll Master - just like the gambler, only this time, instead of money, the reinforcer is waifu nendroid dolls. This player cannot play well on a regular chessboard, but becomes really good when the pieces are replaced with 3d anime figures. Also does well in human chess as long as the humans participating are cute schoolgirls.


Copy - Kise



Mirror
Spoiler! :
Prophylaxis - someone who doesn't particularly stand out at first and just appears as someone who prefers a quiet playstyle. From the outside, it looks like he's just slowly limiting the opponent's activity, and making the advance of his army step by step. Then he's eventually able to deal a seemingly normal blow that seals the game.

But the secret is that he doesn't view the game from his own seat. He's not at all interested at the color/side he's playing.

Rather, he can visualizes the board from his opponent's perspective, and, from there, imagines what kind of moves would constrain him the most. You'd think that, playing as White, his goal would be to win as White - no, his goal would be to lose as Black, and vice versa. He sees the board in two dimensions, he sees it from his opponent's point of view, and from that point of view, he imagines which moves would give him the most trouble.

Bonus points if he seems like an extreme sadist to everyone due to his cruel, overbearing, constrictive playstyle, but he's actually a masochist deep inside (two sides of the same coin)



King Walk
Spoiler! :
King Walk - someone who doesn't get vexed that his King is forced out into the open. That's usually crazy, but his vision is locked fixedly on all his opponent's pieces. He willingly parades his King out into the open, and has a self-confidence that Petrosian would be proud of. A weak king that cannot be attacked is not really a weak king


Rain Woman
Spoiler! :
Pawn Raindrops - liquidity in the pawn structure. If you fast forward a game of chess, the way pawns interact is like they rain on each other. 8 white pawns vs 8 black pawns will charge forward towards the enemy's base - some will get stuck with each other, some will manage to pass through, but it's a rule that pawns never go backwards. So when it has advanced to the enemy's base, there's no more retreating to the life of a pawn.

Much like how rain falls only downwards, this person mimicks the fluidity in that motion and finds ingenius ways to make his pawn storm practically impossible to defend, much like how you can't block yourself from water thrown at you.



Ars Poetica
Spoiler! :
Artist - not really sure about this one. Someone who is more concerned about creating a beautiful masterpiece that winning for the sake of winning. Probably a gambit player or something...


Shogi
Spoiler! :
Tabletop - plays a lot of other board games including japanese chess, chinese chess, etc, and can apply techniques used in them into his own western chess playing style




There are probably other interesting powers as well regarding psychology, calculation, etc...



Tell me what you think, and if you have some interesting suggestions, send it in the comments.


Also, here is a trial character design I drew. Hope you like it :3

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
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