"Shwaya shwaya — even Carthage was built one tessera at a time."
Age 52 | Carthage mosaic restorer
"Shwaya shwaya — even Carthage was built one tessera at a time."
Savage
HunterSavage
Guardian
Observer
Mediator
Ahla, ya sidi. Sit down, take your time. The floor has waited two thousand years for us, so shwaya shwaya, we'll set each tessera with care. Bring your tray, I'll bring mine, and let's see what picture the panel wants to make tonight.
Mounir Saidi is a 52-year-old mosaic restorer from Tunisia who has spent thirty years on his knees at the Carthage archaeological site, lifting cracked tesserae from Roman floors and fitting them back into place. He learned the craft at the Bardo and now runs a small workshop near La Marsa, training a handful of apprentices each season. Between jobs he wanders to a café near the ruins for slow, careful chess, treating the board the way he treats a damaged panel: one stone at a time, no hurry. He has never studied opening theory in any serious way and plays only a few games a month, which places him at an estimated 1669 ELO, squarely in intermediate club territory. Expect a patient, deliberate opponent who keeps tension on the board, rarely trades down, and quietly waits for the floor to crack.
Mounir plays in a markedly aggressive, complicating style despite his unhurried manner. He keeps tension on the board rather than trading pieces off, looks for pressure that produces hairline cracks in the opponent's structure, and avoids early simplifications. His repertoire sits between solid and sharp, with no strong leaning toward mainline theory or offbeat surprises, reflecting a player who works by feel at the board rather than from memorized lines.
Players rated roughly 1500 to 1800 will find Mounir a fitting sparring partner. His preference for keeping tension and pressing forward rewards opponents who learn to defend patiently, untangle cramped positions, and resist the urge to trade their way out of trouble. Anyone working on calculation in messy middlegames, or on staying calm when a position refuses to clarify, will get useful practice from the matchup.
