A Summer in the Seventies

The 2nd International Tournament at Bari, Italy, from August 9–23, 1970, was not the happiest one for Wolfgang Unzicker, who experienced most, if not all of the vicissitudes of a German tourist visiting Italy in summer. As wrote Bernard Zuckerman in his article “Tournament at Bari”, Chess Life & Review, Volume XXVI, No. 1, January 1971, p. 11, “Grandmaster Unzicker of West Germany was not in good form in this tournament. He was soundly trounced in the first round by the talented young Italian master, Cosulich, who incidentally, made the first leg of his international master title at this event”. But Unzicker’s misfortunes have not been limited to the board: “Besides his loss to Cosulich, Unzicker was upset by the fact that his car was broken into and some of his money stolen”, writes Zuckerman. “In fact, he postponed his game with Tatai for this reason”.

Roberto Cosulich – Wolfgang Unzicker
2nd International Tournament; Bari, August 9, 1970
Spanish Game C73

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. d4 Bg4. In his annotations for Chess Informant, No. 10/1970, 302, p. 94, Grandmaster honoris Caïssa Enrico Paoli, maybe too influenced by the outcome of the game, gave his preference to 6. ... f6! (even the punctuation is his).
7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Qxd8+ Rxd8 9. Be3! 9. Nfd2 f6 is assessed as equal by theorists. Likewise 9. Nbd2 f6 10. Nc4 Be6 is perfectly fine for Black; for example: 11. Ne3 Bc5 12. Bd2 Ne7 13. Ke2 Nc8 14. Ne1 Bd4 15. Nd3 Nd6 16. f3 a5 17. c3 Bb6 18. b3 a4 19. c4 Bd4 20. Rab1 f5 21. exf5 Nxf5 22. Nc2 0-0 23. g4 Nd6 24. Nxd4 exd4 25. Rbf1? Rb8 26. Nc5 axb3 27. axb3 Rxb3! 28. Nxb3 Bxc4+ 29. Kf2 Bxb3 30. Bb4 c5! 31. Ba3 c4 32. Re1 c3 33. Re7 Bd5 0–1 Klundt – Keres, International 100-Year Jubilee Tournament, Bamberg 1968.
9. ... Bd6. 9. ... f6! 10. Nbd2 Be6! (Paoli) is a suggestion worthy of attention.
10. Nbd2 Ne7 11. Nc4 f6 12. Nfd2! Intending c2-c3, followed by b2-b4 and Nd2-b3-a5.
12. ... Kf7 13. c3

13. ... Rb8? The question mark is from Paoli, who recommends 13. ... c5 14. Nb3 Be6 15. Nca5 Rb8 16. Bxc5 Bxc5 17. Nxc5 Rxb2⩱ with Black being slightly preferable, but he evidently overlooked that White is not compelled to capture on c5. Much better is 16. 0-0-0! (instead of 16. Bxc5?), retaining the Pawn and keeping the bind. There might then follow 16. ... Rb5 17. c4 Rb4 18. Bxc5 Ra4 19. Bxd6 cxd6 20. Rhe1 Bxc4 21. Nb7! Bxb3 22. Nxd6+ Ke6 23. axb3 Rb4 24. Nc4 Rxb3 25. Rd6+ Kf7 26. Rxa6 Rc8 27. Ra4 Ng6 28. Re3! Rb7 29. Rc3± with a Pawn up and chances for a win.
14. b4 Rhd8 15. Nb3 Nc8 16. Nba5± Bd7 17. 0-0-0 Ke7? Enveloping himself within his own walls. 17. ... Be7! was much more resilient and stubborn.
18. Rd2 Be8. 18. ... Nb6? 19. Rxd6!+− is an exemplary instance of euthanasia.
19. Rhd1 g6

20. g3! With methodical consistency, Cosulich conquers the board. One can only note that 20. Nxe5! fxe5 21. Bg5+ Kd7 22. f4! is another way to crush the defendant (28. ... exf4 29. e5+−).
20. ... Nb6. Neither 20. ... Ke6 21. f4+− nor 20. ... g5 (hoping to prevent, as far as possible, the advance f2-f4) 21. Nxe5! fxe5 22. Bxg5+ Kd7 23. f4!+− helps.
21. Nxd6 cxd6 22. Bxb6 Rxb6 23. Nc4 Rbb8. If 23. ... Rb7 then 24. Nxd6 Rbd7 25. Nb7+− (Paoli).
24. Nxd6 c5 25. Nxe8 Rxd2 26. Rxd2 1–0. Whether Black retakes with King or Rook, White will gain a second Pawn by 27. bxc5 and have an easily won ending.

La Vie en rose

Hollywoodly speaking, Edna, can you be absolutely certain that after all, tomorrow is another day?

Artwork © Jose-Ramiro

War and Peace in a Nonlinear World

Word Puzzlers

Day of the Locusts

Almond-Eyes & Long-Tail

A beautiful voice

Beauty and the Beast

Knowledge and knowability

Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, October 5, 2026

Always and again we must question the primacy of knowledge in our culture, and ask ourselves whether indeed — according to the words which open Aristotle’s Metaphysics — what human beings desire is, first and foremost, to know. Indeed, if we restore truth to its etymological meaning of un-concealment (a-letheia), then what is at stake in truth is not knowledge, but knowability — the openess from which only something like knowledge becomes possible. If we call “face” the being manifest, the self-giving and appearing of each thing, then truth lies in this original openess; it is a remembrance of the faces of things, not their reduction to objects of knowledge and science. And since we feel pleasure and fall in love with appearances and faces, a knowledge which claims to do without it cannot in any way contribute to our happiness. If art and philosophy still hold our interest, it is because they deal not with knowledge, but with the knowability of things and people. A culture like the one we live in — which forgets faces and pursues knowledge at all costs — can only end, as is now evident, in a blind and destructive domination of the world by a science transformed into the most intolerant of religions.

(English translation by I, Robot)

Pavel Nikolayevich Filonov, Faces, 1940. Courtesy of WikiArt.

Seven To Eternity

Fugit Irreparabile Tempus

Lectures to the Working Classes

A general demobilisation

Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, October 1, 2026

In 1932, Ernst Jünger published Der Arbeiter, The Worker (or, perhaps more precisely translated, The workman — Marx’s Arbeiterklasse translates to “the working class”), in which this new figure of human being defined the new world order. The centrality of labour corresponds to the dominance of technology. By carrying out concepts he articulated two years earlier in his essay, Total Mobilisation, Jünger writes: “technology is the way in which the form of the worker mobilises the world”. Such a diagnosis — which revisited Marx’s analyses from a radically different perspective — exerted considerable influence across both the political right and left.
It is all the more surprising that this crucial epochal figure has now vanished over the past few decades. Technology continues to rule the world and has certainly increased its power everywhere, yet it is no longer “the way in which the form of the worker mobilises the world”. On the contrary, in the form of artificial intelligence, it rather seems to imply the decline of the centrality of labour which Jünger had in mind. Instead of the servitude linked to exploitation and mobilisation, technoogy — by progressively blurring the lines between social strata and classes — appears now to aim for an unprecedented subservience through a sort of general demobilisation.

(English translation by I, Robot)

Erró, Chinese man at the Guggenheim, New York, 1976. Courtesy of WikiArt.

Gaza Riviera

Cinema Paradiso

Time to Play

Bibi Goes Hollywood

You know, Edna, no one comes into the world thinking they will never see justice

Photo © Ольга Нуарэ / Olga Noiret 🍀 (@noiret.dolls)

A Welcome in the Big Apple

Divine Punishment

Violin in a Weekend

Dead Leaves

Alberto Mario Giustolisi – Roberto Cosulich
37th Italian Chess Championship; Castelvecchio Pascoli, November 17, 1976
English Opening A22

Comments by Grandmaster Ludek Pachman, Trouw, Saturday, August 20, 1977, p. 21.

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Bg2 0-0 5. Nf3. A good alternative here is 5. e4.
5. ... e4 6. Nd4. 6. Ng5 Bxc3 leads to sharper play.
6. ... Re8. Also possible is 6. ... Bxc3 7. bxc3 d5.
7. Qc2 Qe7 8. a3 Bxc3 9. Qxc3. White thus prevents the doubling of his Pawns, though at the cost of falling somewhat behind in development.
9. ... c5 10. Nf5 Qe6 11. Ne3 Nc6 12. b4 d6 13. 0-0 Nd4 14. Re1 Qe5 15. Bb2 Qh5 16. d3!!

16. ... Bh3. Too dangerous would be: 16. ... Nxe2+ 17. Rxe2 Qxe2 18. Nd5 Re5 19. Nxf6+ gxf6 20. dxe4 followed by f2-f4.
17. dxe4 Bxg2 18. Kxg2 Nxe4 19. Qd3 Nxf2! Black goes for a drawing combination before White’s dark-square Bishop becomes too dangerous.
20.Kxf2 Rxe3! (20. ... Qxh2+? 21. Ng2 Re6 22. Bxd4 cxd4 23. Qxd4 Rf6+ 25. Qxf6! gxf6 26. Rh1)
21. Qxe3?? This loses immediately, whereas 21. Kxe3! Qh6+ 22. Kf2 Qxh2+ would have led to perpetual check.
21. ... Qxh2+ 22. Kf1 Nf5 23. Qf2 Nxg3+ 24. Qxg3 Qxg3 0–1.

The Forever Friends

At the closing ceremony of the “World Chess Championship Revenge Match of the Twentieth Century” (1992): Bobby Fischer and Boris Vasilievich Spassky share bread like brothers. Photo via Collin Gaylord.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Mission: Possible

Just a Few Lines

[Event "9th UISP Italian Chess Championship"]
[Site "Casciana Terme ITA"]
[Date "1988.12.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mauro, Alan"]
[Black "Barsi, Lorenzo"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C84"]
[PlyCount "42"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 Ne4 7.O-O Be7 8.Nxd4 O-O 9.Nf5 d5 10.exd6 Bf5 11.dxe7 Nxe7 12.Qf3 Qd4 13.Bb3 Rad8 14.Nc3 Nxc3 15.bxc3 Qg4 16.Qxg4 Bxg4 17.Ba3 Rfe8 18.Rfe1 Nc6 19.f3 Be6 20.Rad1 Rxd1 21.Rxd1 Rd8 1/2-1/2