Silent Witch: Chinmoku no Majo no Kakushigoto - Ch. 29.1

[MangaDex]

 

[AnotherDuck]

Bit of prince backstory, but doesn't go into much depth.

When people talk about chess bringing out people's personalities, it's usually not very accurate to how chess is actually played. And the strategy you use isn't necessarily the same as your personality.

The moment she's told she needs to interact with more people, she panics.

And a bit of Monica backstory.

 

[TrapCard113]

"Try and cross the barrier of social status and someone will get hurt".
Yes, the commoner 99.999% of the time. Would be nice to see this pretentious prick fall down a flight of stairs in a .5 or two.

 

[Sancturil]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Silfir]

One of the most painful moments in the light novel... A conversation about chess that makes very little sense. It hasn't started making more sense once adapted.

It begins with Elliott thoughtfully declaring the game to be a "stalemate", with a tiny view of the position. The definition of "stalemate" is a narrow one - it happens when a player is out of legal moves, but also not in check. So far as we can tell, only White could possibly be in stalemate. Assuming the black pawn is cutting off two of the squares to the king's sides, and the white pawn diagonally adjacent is being pinned by a bishop, and the tall piece cut off by the top right edge of the panel is a king, and the black pawn in front of the king is protected somehow, the position could indeed be stalemate, though an incredibly contrived one. Black was definitely winning massively and blundered something, which doesn't mesh with the game being later described as Monica fighting Elliott to a stalemate on equal footing.

An adaptation prioritizing chess accuracy (the only adaptation worth doing) could do so by Elliott proclaiming a draw instead of a stalemate, which is infinitely more flexible to work with, and a much more common outcome of a chess game. A natural one for two players meant to be on equal footing at this point in time.

Elliott proceeds to philosophize about the interplay between chess and personality. Cyril being described as a "protect-the-king" type of player is somewhat plausible, if translated into a player who prioritizes king safety in the opening and forgoes early aggression; say, opening Nf3 - g3 - Bg2 with White and castling and deciding on a course of action afterwards based on Black's response. Monica, meanwhile, is characterized as a player who would gladly use their king as "bait" in order to win. That's not really a thing. There is such a thing as aggressive, risk-taking chess, of course, but the risk being taken is usally sacrifices of pawns or pieces to expose the other player's king and/or get a lead in development, hoping to checkmate before the material disadvantage proves decisive. I can't really think of any gambit opening that specifically sacrifices king safety - that's a good way to just lose. What's true is that a player who has the initiative (they are delivering threats move after move the opponent must parry or else) may not have to castle or worry about king safety for a while.

Up to this point, there's a possibility the author had shogi in mind while writing. By my very limited understanding, one of the big differences between shogi and chess is that castling in shogi takes multiple moves, and players may choose to castle very thoroughly (spending a lot of moves, and leaving the opponent to their own devices for a long time) or form a quicker castle that is easier to attack, or just leave the king in the middle and go on the hunt right away. That absolutely could be characterized as using the king as bait. In chess, it could be adjusted into Monica being a player who routinely sacrifices pawns to attack early and often, as opposed to Cyril, who holes up with his king and hopes to win in the long run.

The Jean-Luc Picard facepalm moment is Elliott's declaration that he refuses to promote pawns on principle. It makes him sound like a classist douchebag, but worse still, it makes him a terrible chess player. How is he ever going to win an endgame? And this part wouldn't make sense in shogi either. Promotion is an even bigger part of shogi than it is in chess, if anything!

Overall: the chess talk in this chapter could work for the most part, with some adjustments. It's just Elliott who has to think of a way to be a classist prick without making taking a nonsensical stance against fundamental rules of chess. I honestly can't think of one myself, unfortunately. The problem is that Elliott is meant to be genuinely convinced that a strict division of the social strata protects commoners as well, which means his chess style can't be one that gleefully sacrifices pawns. I think chess just wasn't the way to showcase this aspect of Elliott's character (assuming it's even worth showcasing!)

 

[CheesiBoye]

One of the most painful moments in the light novel... A conversation about chess that makes very little sense. It hasn't started making more sense once adapted.

It begins with Elliott thoughtfully declaring the game to be a "stalemate", with a tiny view of the position. The definition of "stalemate" is a narrow one - it happens when a player is out of legal moves, but also not in check. So far as we can tell, only White could possibly be in stalemate. Assuming the black pawn is cutting off two of the squares to the king's sides, and the white pawn diagonally adjacent is being pinned by a bishop, and the tall piece cut off by the top right edge of the panel is a king, and the black pawn in front of the king is protected somehow, the position could indeed be stalemate, though an incredibly contrived one. Black was definitely winning massively and blundered something, which doesn't mesh with the game being later described as Monica fighting Elliott to a stalemate on equal footing.

An adaptation prioritizing chess accuracy (the only adaptation worth doing) could do so by Elliott proclaiming a draw instead of a stalemate, which is infinitely more flexible to work with, and a much more common outcome of a chess game. A natural one for two players meant to be on equal footing at this point in time.

Elliott proceeds to philosophize about the interplay between chess and personality. Cyril being described as a "protect-the-king" type of player is somewhat plausible, if translated into a player who prioritizes king safety in the opening and forgoes early aggression; say, opening Nf3 - g3 - Bg2 with White and castling and deciding on a course of action afterwards based on Black's response. Monica, meanwhile, is characterized as a player who would gladly use their king as "bait" in order to win. That's not really a thing. There is such a thing as aggressive, risk-taking chess, of course, but the risk being taken is usally sacrifices of pawns or pieces to expose the other player's king and/or get a lead in development, hoping to checkmate before the material disadvantage proves decisive. I can't really think of any gambit opening that specifically sacrifices king safety - that's a good way to just lose. What's true is that a player who has the initiative (they are delivering threats move after move the opponent must parry or else) may not have to castle or worry about king safety for a while.

Up to this point, there's a possibility the author had shogi in mind while writing. By my very limited understanding, one of the big differences between shogi and chess is that castling in shogi takes multiple moves, and players may choose to castle very thoroughly (spending a lot of moves, and leaving the opponent to their own devices for a long time) or form a quicker castle that is easier to attack, or just leave the king in the middle and go on the hunt right away. That absolutely could be characterized as using the king as bait. In chess, it could be adjusted into Monica being a player who routinely sacrifices pawns to attack early and often, as opposed to Cyril, who holes up with his king and hopes to win in the long run.

The Jean-Luc Picard facepalm moment is Elliott's declaration that he refuses to promote pawns on principle. It makes him sound like a classist douchebag, but worse still, it makes him a terrible chess player. How is he ever going to win an endgame? And this part wouldn't make sense in shogi either. Promotion is an even bigger part of shogi than it is in chess, if anything!

Overall: the chess talk in this chapter could work for the most part, with some adjustments. It's just Elliott who has to think of a way to be a classist prick without making taking a nonsensical stance against fundamental rules of chess. I honestly can't think of one myself, unfortunately. The problem is that Elliott is meant to be genuinely convinced that a strict division of the social strata protects commoners as well, which means his chess style can't be one that gleefully sacrifices pawns. I think chess just wasn't the way to showcase this aspect of Elliott's character (assuming it's even worth showcasing!)

Knowing what I know from the quick search for info about the LN after watching the adaptation. I believe any punishment Elliott recieves for his transgression to royalty, despite being absolved, needed to be worse.

Spoiler: Big spoiler info for the prince

the fact that his arrogance caused not only the death of a royal, the subsequent '2nd death' of his attendant and continued elitist behavior within the school directed towards both of his victims who outrank him in moral scruple and court rank in name is as if he was written to be a villain. But narratively, is treated as a symptom/victim of the bigger problem of political structure. Personally i believe he's both a proponent of the problem and a symptom of it, he's very far from being a victim having the two protagonists being his victims, but they're both far too kind and gracious to him because of their percieved lack of self-worth

 

[Sakidornis]

I heard there were a lot of scenes cut out from the chess competition arc in anime. Can’t wait to see them here!

 

[DanJADO]

Why did they cut her foster mother in the anime? I want to know MORE

 

[pir0zhki]

Damn the release pace is so glacial that I had to stop to figure out where we were in the story again.

Not much to say, other than it's always nice to see Elliott warming up to Monica.

 

[lesseffective]

The audacity of that teacher to pick Monica for the competition, thus forcing her to talk to people!

 

[AquilaSilvestris]

Little language note:
Coats are hung, people are hanged.

 

[DirtEater21]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[CrimsonNanashi]

Fuck you Bernie

Little language note:
Coats are hung, people are hanged.

People can certainly be hung

 

[TheEnd478]

"Try and cross the barrier of social status and someone will get hurt".
Yes, the commoner 99.999% of the time. Would be nice to see this pretentious prick fall down a flight of stairs in a .5 or two.

Yep, he near completely ignores that it was equally his uncle's fault for his own ruin, he acts as though his former Aunt in Law stole all his uncle's money and his uncle didn't ENABLE her bad behavior and then take "the easy way out" of his mistake! His story rubbed me the wrong way! Putting the blame of that affair on the commoner as you said 99.999% of it was placed on the "Commoner" while his uncle was "seen by him as a foolish but well meaning person who suffered because he tried to DEFY the natural order and NOT what he was, a fool in love who refused to control his wife and her spending and brought about his own ruin, as you said, it's the COMMONER who gets hurt the most when that happens because SHE put a spell on his uncle! For someone who judges people, he sure at no point ever "humbles that HUGE pride of his and judges himself!" It's that attitude that the Prince got hurt when he was suppose to watch him! Despite his OPINION on the Prince being "weak" he is STILL a guardian! I admit I SMILED when his father slapped him! Prince was too much a gentle soul for him!")

I mean if the Prince hadn't lied, he'd have been in SEVERE trouble and it WAS his fault because he was suppose to be watching him. Yet let him climb which lead to that result! I get the Prince was being good-nature, but I think he was flabbergasted because "Natural Order" would mean he was due to a SEVERE physical punishment for allowing Royalty in his guardianship/watch get harmed when he could have stopped it! (Of course he's still unaware FMC is already a big shot and has no need to worry about "being ruined" being one of the FUCKING GUARDIANS OF THE KINGDOM AND ALL! At least he acknowledges INCOMPETENTS among the Nobility!)

Feels like he just wants to protect HIMSELF then anything! Telling himself "stay in the proper order and everything works" and his hate of UPSTARTS is "thy mess with the natural order" His ideals have the side effect of STAGNATION which is what FEEDS more "incompetents" because no one is STRIVING to be better, they just keep things as they are because they work (and never fathom that it worked AT THAT TIME but one must PROGRESS OR DIE because yeah those systems worked GREAT.....on Year 1, but there was ALWAYS a case that things needed to advance and shit needed REPAIRING to keep it that way! Let the "Oh it will work no matter what" set in and you're LOOKING for pain when it RUPTURES!)