Wow, you actually read through it haha.
Sorry about that. I wanted to establish that every one of these characters have their own unique type of chess, referenced from real life practical play. Watching Kuroko's Basketball, I very much enjoyed the promise/teaser at the beginning that "These 5 players from Teiko are all god-like in skill". We get introduced to one and we think, "This power is bullsh*t!! There's NO WAY the remaining guys can beat him!!!" And then another one gets introduced with a skill that's completely different from the previous one, (oh?) and it creates anticipation for what could be the next power to match all that.
This feeling honestly made me want to play basketball. I still don't, (I have no friends) but I want to get someone interested in chess by similarly referencing various things in the chess community.
Rei plays blindfold chess (this sh*t is so hard to do, I don't know how anyone can keep track of 32 pieces in their head), the book he writes is the book Fischer made before he died, Anasthese is Judit Polgar (reference to women's chess), the title of the novel is "Swindle", which is a "hail Mary" all-or-nothing final attack you make when you are already losing. If the opponent flinches and makes a wrong move, you can turn this lose into a draw or maybe even a win, effectively "swindling" the opponent of his well-earned victory.
There are also a lot of other interesting trivia I want to reference: correspondence chess (you play 10 different boards at the same time), gambling chess (i know a friend in highschool who gets really good when money is being wagered), tag team chess (2 people alternate), bughouse chess (2 vs 2, you play white on your board, your teammate plays black, every black piece you take from your opponent becomes your teammate's piece), speed chess (sanek), human chess (32 humans in a checkered front lawn), etc...
Along with this, I would also like to give each character a superpower of sort, to act as a metaphor/ battle representation for their creativity in playing
