Crosetto and chess

It is seven o’clock one morning in Paris when Guido Crosetto wakes up and, in the lobby of a hotel near the Ritz (which is not the Ritz), takes his mind off things by playing chess. The Defence Minister is alone, strictly so, grappling with bishops, rooks and queens. Alone, too, perhaps because he knows that ‘in chess, as in life, the most dangerous opponent is ourselves’. These were the words of the Soviet (non-militant) Vasily Smyslov. The world chess champion of the 1950s who is said to have inspired the scene at Place Vendôme. It is therefore seven o’clock sharp when the minister, following his meeting with his counterparts from France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom, collects his thoughts before flying to Oslo and then to Helsinki. On the brink of checkmate. Such is the minister’s solitude.