The Western Post - March 2024

March Puzzle

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By The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, Guardian of the West

Bonne Chance – Full version here

Solve the anagrams to reveal the letters for the final message, and then use the circled letters from the words in the top part to complete the final phrase at the bottom. Each circled letter is used just once.

Send your finished answers to The West Pacific Master Dispatch to be featured in next month's paper!

Congrats to these folks who solved last month's puzzle!

Con Nihawitan

Remember that all who solve a puzzle receive a challenge coin, so that's another reason to try your hand at solving our monthly puzzles, especially since you can display it in places like your signature and trophy case.

Thank you Fujai for creating the challenge coin!

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The year of 2024 in West Pacifican chess was opened by another interregional tournament, the third in our series of such events hosted together with the North Pacific, after June and October last year! These competitions regularly attract high participation, featuring players from not only the two host regions but also other regions that host chess events, notably The Region That Has No Big Banks. Together, players from across NationStates contributed to making a great and memorable chess arena happen, about which I'll be writing here.

As in previous editions, me and Kaschovia spearheaded the planning of the event. Continuing the theme of playing standard chess side-by-side with a chess variant, this time the Atomic variant was chosen, since the arena was hosted one week before the 10th edition of N-Day. However, in order to increase participation and reduce tiredness, it was decided that the Atomic arena would happen on February 16th, a Friday, and the Standard one would take place on the following day. This additionally had the benefit of offering an extra opportunity for those that couldn't make one of the days, and it turned out to be very successful!

Atomic Arena

Atomic chess is a variant that essentially changes the rules of piece capture. Standard chess has the piece used to capture take the space of the captured piece, which is removed from the board, but in atomic chess this causes an explosion where the capturer piece is exploded too, as well as any pieces except pawns within an one square radius, no matter whether they're friendly or enemy pieces. This causes some interesting quirks, for example an alternative way to win the game by exploding a piece adjacent to the opponent's king, as well as interesting checks and checkmates because the defending player can't capture an enemy piece located besides the king (in fact, kings can't capture pieces at all).

Such a different game mode causes the existence of several opening traps, prominently featuring the knight and queen, and less endgames than traditional chess. Therefore, with games being faster, a duration of two hours was chosen for this arena, in comparison to three hours for the standard one. For some interesting statistics, the arena had a participation of 9 players with an average rating of 1552, who together played a total of 142 games and 2,425 moves—an average of only 17 moves per game! Interestingly, there were no draws, with the white pieces winning 55% of the time and the black pieces winning 45%. Berserk was commonly used, owing to the fast-paced nature of the atomic variant, with a 47% percentage of berserk use among all games.

Congratulations are in order for Martledola who won the atomic arena! They had a solid performance with 99 points and 98% berserking rate across their games. I came in second place, earning 78 points despite only being able to play for the second half of the tournament, and also had the highest win rate. Completing the podium we have TWPMystery, a fellow regionmate who chose to stay anonymous, in third place with 56 points. They had a nail-biting dispute with eventual fourth place The Washington Federation, both finishing with the exact same number of points so the tie had to be broken by win rate! The complete ranking can be seen here:

1. Martledola – 99 points (29 wins, 12 losses) – 41 played, 71% win rate, 98% berserk, 1790 performance

2. Giovanniland – 78 points (20 wins, 1 loss) – 21 played, 95% win rate, 67% berserk, 2011 performance

3. TWPMystery – 56 points (22 wins, 17 losses) – 39 played, 56% win rate, 1646 performance

4. The Washington Federation – 56 points (19 wins, 25 losses) – 44 played, 43% win rate, 41% berserk, 1607 performance

5. Venesia Grande – 48 points (21 wins, 20 losses) – 41 played, 51% win rate, 1580 performance

6. Montrandec – 41 points (16 wins, 38 losses) – 52 played, 31% win rate, 92% berserk, 1419 performance

7. Jutsa – 30 points (11 wins, 8 losses) – 19 played, 58% win rate, 58% berserk, 1614 performance

8. New United Common-lands – 4 points (2 wins, 2 losses) – 4 played, 50% win rate, 1559 performance

9. Toast incorporated – 4 points (2 wins, 21 losses) – 23 played, 9% win rate, 9% berserk, 1155 performance

Standard Arena

One day after the Atomic arena, it was time for the standard chess one! Comparing statistics with the standard portion of the 2nd TWP & TNP Interregional Arena, participation stayed the same at 17 people, though across the two different competitions in this edition, there were more than ever before. The number of games nearly doubled, from 83 to 159, and the total moves across them likewise increased, from 5,615 to 9,777. Other stats stayed mostly the same as before, with a minor oscillation in the game results, namely a slight drop in draws and in return slightly more black pieces' wins.

As one can see in the final rankings below, this competition had a fight until the very end to see who would be in the podium! Only fourteen points separate the first place UDE from the fifth place Kaschovia, and it's even closer between the second, third and fourth places—a last minute win allowed me to overtake New Estoniaball by a single point, but they also played very well and in fact defeated me in all matches we played this time.

1. Unified Democratic Europe – 64 points (19 wins, 2 draws, 10 losses) – 31 played, 61% win rate, 48% berserk, 1659 performance

2. Giovanniland – 58 points (18 wins, 4 draws, 5 losses) – 27 played, 67% win rate, 19% berserk, 1696 performance

3. New Estoniaball – 57 points (18 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses) – 22 played, 82% win rate, 9% berserk, 1893 performance

4. The Perfection Isles – 55 points (17 wins, 2 draws, 6 losses) – 25 played, 68% win rate, 12% berserk, 1611 performance

5. Kaschovia – 50 points (17 wins, 2 draws, 12 losses) – 31 played, 55% win rate, 52% berserk, 1487 performance

6. Racoda – 39 points (16 wins, 13 losses) – 29 played, 55% win rate, 14% berserk, 1536 performance

7. Martledola – 32 points (10 wins, 7 losses) – 17 played, 59% win rate, 100% berserk, 1387 performance

8. The Washington Federation – 22 points (10 wins, 21 losses) – 31 played, 32% win rate, 1286 performance

9. Montrandec – 22 points (9 wins, 27 losses) – 36 played, 25% win rate, 28% berserk, 1047 performance

10. Eruistan – 19 points (6 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses) – 9 played, 67% win rate, 1501 performance

11. Jutsa – 16 points (5 wins, 10 losses) – 15 played, 33% win rate, 67% berserk, 1162 performance

12. Eluvatar – 4 points (2 wins, 6 losses) – 8 played, 25% win rate, 1053 performance

13. Inner Ryxtylopia – 4 points (2 wins, 13 losses) – 15 played, 13% win rate, 869 performance

14. Someoneguythatexists – 2 points (1 win) – 1 played, 100% win rate

15. Mad Jack Is Rejected – 2 points (1 win, 3 losses) – 4 played, 25% win rate, 1198 performance

16. Reshiram enthusiasts – 2 points (1 win, 3 losses) – 4 played, 25% win rate, 1187 performance

17. Conania – 2 points (1 win, 5 losses) – 6 played, 17% win rate, 935 performance

The first place awards for the Standard (Blitz) and Atomic arenas, featuring the symbols for each.
Other awards can be seen in the TWP Chess Tournaments dispatch.

All in all, the 3rd TWP & TNP Interregional Chess Arena was definitely a fun time for everyone involved, whether they participated only in the Atomic arena, in the Standard one, or in both! I thank everyone who participated, and I appreciate that not only TWPers and TNPers joined, but also people from several other regions! This eventhas continued the good legacy established by the two previous editions, and I hope that future interregional arenas like this one continue to happen.

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Welcome to the sixth edition of the Western Post's CityGuessr game! After a successful previous edition with many guesses sent, we'll be revealing the answer to its puzzle and proposing the next challenge to all readers. This game is a take on the known game GeoGuessr, where players are given a view of a place and have to guess its location in the world, using Google Maps to move around and try to catch some hints. In the adapted version of the newspaper there is of course no such possibility, hence the fact we're restricting the scope of the game to cities and calling it CityGuessr.

Last month we made a change in the submission method, transitioning from in-game telegrams to a Google form, and it has been very successful! In comparison to the puzzle before that, participation more than doubled, and we got a total of seven players attempting to guess which Asian city Sekiya took photos in (Sekiya also gave the form idea and made the banner, for which I'm very thankful). The rankings are presented below, with the nation name, their guess, how far it was from the actual city, and the points received.

1. Corbeil – Kawasaki, Japan – 11.45 km away – 3 points

2. Foressul and Nas Crustium – Tokyo, Japan – 28.73 km away – 2 points each

3. Peourouin – Nagoya, Japan – 250.52 km away – 1 point

4. Conania – Kyoto, Japan – 356.83 km away

5. Con Nihawitan – Seoul, South Korea – 1156.24 km away

6. Tinhampton – Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China – 2366.20 km away

Since no one got it right this time, there won't be any recipients this month of the challenge coin designed by Fujai, but maybe there will be soon! Correctly guess the city of this edition and you'll receive the coin below, which you can display in signatures, trophy cases or other places you'd like. We're also providing an updated version of the leaderboard, especially since there have already been many editions.

1. Corbeil – 12 points

2. Nas Crustium – 8 points

3. Pedandria – 4 points

4. Aberketia, Bhang Bhang Duc, Con Nihawitan and Tinhampton – 3 points each

5. Foressul and Sekiya – 2 points each

6. Montrandec and Peourouin – 1 point each

Now let's get onto this month's challenge—for those new to the game, here are the rules originally written by Tam Dao and adapted since then!

CityGuessr, as the name suggests, will ask you to guess which city of the world the photos are showing, both photos always referring to the same city. We will keep the scope of the game to cities only, as we don't have the luxury of moving around to check for clues. We will also provide a single clue of the continent where the city is located.

Use the submission link here in order to send your guess! Remember that you only have one guess that can't be changed later, and that it's expressly forbidden to use outside resources to figure it out, otherwise it wouldn't be a guess.

Furthermore, to add a bit of competition to the game, we will rank all guesses based on how close they are to the correct answer. The top 3 answers will be given points: 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, and 1 point for 3rd. The highest scorer will gain the bragging right of being the CityGuessr Champion of the Month, and the top scorer across 12 editions of the game will be crowned CityGuessr Grand Champion.

In this edition we return to the Americas! Thank you to The Holy Principality of Saint Mark who kindly provided the images.

Full quality photos here

Last but not least, besides making your guess through the form above, there's also another way to participate in CityGuessr! If you're interested in helping out by submitting photos, feel free to upload them to Imgur or another image-hosting service of your choice, and then telegram the links to The West Pacific Master Dispatch. I wish you all good luck in solving this edition's challenge and hope you have fun!

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What's that—it's Photos of the World? The first one of 2024? That's right! It's me, Sekiya, and for the 6th edition of this article I'll be sharing some of my favourite photos from my trip, talking about what's going on, where I am, and so on. I'm sure you get the picture.

Before I get going, I have a question for you, the reader. What are your favourite photos you have taken of the world? Do you want to post them here and write about them? We'd love to see them! If you're interested in sharing some of your photos with us and a little bit of information, feel free to contact Giovanniland and we'll advise you on how to get started!

Now, you guys have already spent 3 months reading about Japan, where I have been, what I ate, what I saw... so for this article, I'll be focusing on where the photograph is taken, and the story surrounding it. For those of you that haven't read any of my articles about Japan, I visited the country in the summer of 2023 for around a month with a group of friends. We went to Tokyo, Yokohama, Fujikawaguchiko, Osaka, Himeji and Kyoto, as well as a few other smaller places on the way.

Expo Commemoration Park, Osaka

Full quality photos here

In 1970, the city of Osaka hosted the World Expo between March 15th and September 13th. The fair was based around 'Progress and Harmony for Mankind', and featured several pavilions from countries across the globe, such as West Germany, the USSR, South Korea, Hong Kong and more. The fair was famous for the first premier of an IMAX film and the display of a moon rock, brought back by Apollo 12 in 1969. In its place where the fair was held is the Expo Commemoration Park.

The two photos above display the Tower of the Sun, designed by Tarō Okamoto and was the main symbol of Expo '70. As seen in the second photo, the tower has an interior that goes up almost all the way to the top on the inside, and shows the evolution of life from the bottom all the way to the top.

The rest of the park, roughly 2.6 km² (1 mi²), contains the National Museum of Ethnology, several themed gardens, public barbecue areas and miles of cycle and footpaths. To the south of the park is the huge Expocity Mall. The park is in Suita, which is quite far from central Osaka, but in my opinion, a must-see if you are visiting Kansai. When we visited, we ended up spending the entire day exploring, and we definitely missed many things we would have loved to have seen.

Himeji Castle, Himeji

Full quality photos here

Himeji Castle is one of the last surviving 'traditional' castles of Japan. Japanese castles were typically built upon hills, or around strategic areas, such as river crossings, ports or busy crossroads. Typically, they are made with foundations of stone, and feature large moats. Unlike in Europe, where stone fortifications rapidly evolved to keep up with the invention of the catapult, such siege technologies never prevailed in Japan, meaning that most Japanese castles are made out of wood—the wooden interior can be seen in the second photo.

The castle was built in 1333, however it was expanded upon up until the beginning of the 17th century, where it was demolished and rebuilt in 1609. In the past, there were around five thousand Japanese castles, however many have been destroyed in war and as part of a demolition effort during the beginning of the Meiji era, where they were destroyed as they were not seen as part of Japan's new era and costly to maintain.

Himeji Castle was set to be destroyed in 1871, however was able to be saved. It was put up for auction, and sold for a total of 23.5 yen, which comes out to roughly $2,200 when factoring for inflation— a pretty decent price if you ask me. Nowadays it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and perhaps arguably the greatest surviving Japanese castle to date, and is thus the most visited one in Japan. As seen below, the fortress offers amazing views of the rest of the city, and is surrounded by a large park! Furthermore, it frequently appears in multiple games, movies and TV series.

Full quality photo here

Arashiyama, Kyoto

Full quality photos here

Arashiyama is a district in the east of the former capital of Japan, Kyoto, which is perhaps the most culturally rich city in Japan, packed with shrines, temples, and the imperial palace at the centre! The district is a brilliant day out, with a distinct and traditional commercial center, a bamboo forest for nature lovers, the beautiful Katsura river (pictured in the first photo) and a hill with the monkeys! For those either looking for souvenirs or a good pair of chopsticks, Arashiyama's shopping area is packed with a combination of traditional goods, such as chopsticks, fans, and umbrellas as well as modern goods, such as tacky & fun keychains, magnets and more. You can find a huge variety of great food and I'd recommend getting an ice cream because Kyoto is an extremely hot city.

Kameyama-koen park, or simply the monkey hill, is often avoided by tourists as it comes with a 20 minute climb to the top. However, despite feeling sick when I got to the top, it was extremely worth it! Whilst it's not encouraged to directly interact with the monkeys, you are able to buy a small pouch of nuts to feed them. Additionally, the hill has some of the best views of the Arashiyama district, Kyoto and surrounding mountains, as seen above.

Finally, near the base of Kameyama-koen is the bamboo grove, with some of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen in my life. The grove is one of the most popular sights in all of Kyoto, and you've likely seen pictures of it before if you've ever looked at a travel article on Kyoto. The following two photos display this wonderful place!

Full quality photos here

That's it for this edition of the Photos of the World series, I hope everyone is appreciating this series of articles and the interesting snapshots of various places in the world it brings.

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All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia
The Western Post Staff - Delegate: Overthinkers - Editors: Fujai and Giovanniland - Staff: Ageros, Bran Astor, Hertfordshire and Jammbo, Montrandec, Occidius, Sekiya, Teralyon, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, and YOU
All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia

spooky!