Blitz: Ablaze to Publish Chess Manga from Shonen Jump in September

Blitz, the hit chess manga serialized in Shonen Jump, immerses readers into the “game of kings,” where intuition and mental agility are precious assets on the way to victory! Chess grandmaster and World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov makes his manga debut in the series, written by Cédric Biscay and Harumo Sanazaki with artwork by Daitaro Nishihara.

BLITZ, Vol. 1 TP by Cédric Biscay, Harumo Sanazaki and Daitaro Nishihara • MSRP: $12.99 • 224 Pages

Tom, a young high school student, has a crush on his classmate Harmony. When he learns about her passion for chess, Tom quickly decides to sign up for the school’s chess club. But he doesn’t even know the rules! To impress Harmony, he is left with no choice: he must learn quickly and train seriously.

Soon Tom discovers the existence of Garry Kasparov, the greatest player in the history of chess. He stumbles upon a virtual reality machine that promises to help him analyze the most legendary matches of the master!

In an unexpected twist of event, Tom soon is granted access to the highest echelons of the chess world…”

Bonus material includes:

In each volume, chess strategy tips and a chess lexicon to turn every reader into a chess master!

Creator and manga co-writer Cédric Biscay is the producer behind the return of the Shenmue saga in 2019 on PS4 and PC and holds 3 World Records in the Guinness book. He is also the producer of the multi-award-winning documentary Sad Hill Unearthed, available globally on Netflix, and the upcoming rebooted Astroboy anime series. He is also a recipient of a Certificate of Honor from the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Co-writer Harumo Sanazaki is a prolific Japanese manga-ka, having participated in more than 130 manga, including The Phantom of the Opera.

Born in 1971 in Hiroshima, artist Daitaro Nishihara started as a manga-ka in the magazine Monthly Shonen Jump. From 2001, several of his series were pre-published in the magazine Korokoro Comic (Shôgakukan), notably Pokémon 6 – Jirachi: The Genius of Wishes.

Born in 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Soviet Union, Blitz consultant Garry Kasparov became, at the age of 12, chess champion of the USSR’s under-18 age group. Then, at the age of 17, he won the Under-20 World Chess Champion title. In 1985, at the age of 22, he gained international notoriety as the youngest World Chess Champion in history. He defended his title five times, including a series of legendary matches against his great rival Anatoly Karpov. Kasparov broke Bobby Fischer’s record in 1990, and his own record remained undefeated until 2013. His famous matches against IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer in 1996-97 played a key role in the integration of artificial intelligence into the world of chess.

Blitz will be available in print and digitally in North America, Australia, and the UK. Ablaze titles are distributed in-print by Diamond Comic and Diamond Book Distributors. Vol. 1 will be available in comic shops on September 14^th and in bookstores on September 27^th.