Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Jan-22-26 Mariano Sana, Argentinian by birth, in the US since 1995. Naturalized US citizen. I hold a PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania, and I am an associate professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/sociology.... Previously, I was at Louisiana State University (2003-2009). My published academic work can be seen here: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/Mar.... My review of Gary Alan Fine's "Players and Pawns" is here: https://www.academia.edu/69647923/P.... My avatar comes from a cartoon of mine drawn by a friend. My username, besides the pasta, is my late cat's name (he died in March 2021, age 19), inspired by this cartoon: https://condenaststore.com/featured.... My first tournament was at age 12 in 1979. I finished 8th in the Argentine junior championship in 1985. So, I was good enough, but not great. (That same evaluation might still be apt today, on a good day.) Unfortunately, no game scores survived from those years. I started to play again after grad school. I play between 0 and 4 tournaments per year. I won the Louisiana State Championship in 2007. I lost the first game and then won six in a row. This was my last round win, where I got lucky after playing the opening pretty terribly: J Rousselle vs M Sana, 2007. I also won the under 2200 section of the US Open in 2014. Again, Swiss gambit. Lost the first one, then won five in a row, lost game 7 (M Sana vs J Sheng, 2014, a rather atypical game), and won games 8 and 9. My last round win was featured as a Tuesday puzzle: K Gulamali vs M Sana, 2014. (Try it! Black to play at move 29. But you can also do black to play at move 22 as a principled-move puzzle.) I'd say that I am essentially a good but inconsistent player. My playing style is a mix of strategic and tactical. I'm usually very willing to sac a pawn or allow positional weaknesses in exchange for active piece play. For years I hovered around 2200, down to mid 2100s a few years ago after a disaster and a 50-point loss at the 2019 World Open. (Aging and MS fatigue had much to do with that.) On good days, I have had nice wins: T Bartell vs M Sana, 2009, R Burnett vs M Sana, 2012, M Sana vs C Blocker, 2014, M Sana vs R Burnett, 2015. But on a bad day, I can play horribly and lose against whoever is sitting in front of me. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2011, but it didn't cause me trouble until 2018/9. I have a weak right leg (I often use a cane now) and I fatigue easily. Medication, well-timed naps, and exercise help. I play blitz games on chess.com under the username RealFusilli. My participation on this website goes through ebbs and flows, and the majority of my posts are about chess. I often post on my own forum just to keep records for myself. Everyone is welcome to visit and share! (But please don't post about politics here.)

Fusilli has kibitzed 6342 times to chessgames   [more...]

Jan-22-26 G Oparin vs A Goganov, 2017    Fusilli: Good one, <OCF>. And good game too.      Jan-12-26 Fusilli chessforum   Fusilli: <arek> Good to see you around here, my friend, though those are distressing news I'm sorry to hear. I have now recovered, I am back in the classroom, life has returned to normal. I still have a minor lingering cough, which I hope gets tired of me and leaves me soon. Cheers.      Jan-10-26 Sax vs Karpov, 1989    Fusilli: <perfidious> Well, that merits some discussion. For a while, white has been preferring d3 in move 5 or 6, but if white chooses the traditional closed set up, and doesn't go for 8.a4, the Breyer continues to be black's top preference on move 9. (I play it frequently in blitz ...      Jan-09-26 Kasparov vs Nunn, 1989    Fusilli: <Check It Out: I also assumed Nunn would be saved by something but if the kibitzing here is to be believed, it's Kasparov who was fortunate to make a draw.> My reaction too, though without reading any kibitzing first. I played through the game and got the feeling that Kasparov      Jan-04-26 NN vs G Chandler, 1995   Fusilli: Or Ke7 instead of Nxc1, right? I'm happy to see Ke7 and not O-O, btw. Reminds me of the famous Ed Lasker vs G Thomas, 1912 , where many folks claim that O-O-O# would have been "cool" by comparison to the "boring" Kd2#, which Lasker played. Nonsense. The king doesn't need to rush to      Jan-03-26 chessgames.com chessforum    Fusilli: Suggestion: Can the Russian Championship Superfinal (2005) , which he won, be added to the list of Sergei Rublevsky notable tournaments?      Jan-02-26 Petrosian vs Unzicker, 1960   Fusilli: That king relocation is epic. No reason to rush g4!      Jan-02-26 Biographer Bistro    Fusilli: Can Russian Championship Superfinal (2005) , which he won, be added to the list of Sergei Rublevsky notable tournaments?      Jan-01-26 Portisch vs I Radulov, 1974    Fusilli: This is absolutely mind-boggling.      Jan-01-26 A Isanzhulov vs Ivanchuk, 2025   Fusilli: Poor Ivanchuk.

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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 114 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-20-09    Fusilli: Hi there everyone. I am doing research on "chess migration", i.e. the exodus of chess players from the former Soviet Union to the West, in particular the U.S. I believe that by studying this flow I can draw conclusions that might be generalizable to other more mainstream migration flows. These are some of my leading questions, that are admittedly quite broad: 1) What has been the impact of this migration on the American chess scene, in terms of tournaments, teaching, publishing, etc.? 2) What has been the impact of this flow on U.S.-born chess players? (This obviously depends on the type of players we talk about.) 3) What does the immigrant experience look like for chess players? Again, these questions are quite broad, but feel free to comment on whichever aspect of the topic you want to talk about. I'm all ears (or all eyes, in this case). Jun-20-09    zanshin: Hi, I was going to recommend someone here who I remembered did this research. But it was you! So, I can't help here, but suggest you might want to see hms123 chessforum who is also at Vanderbilt. Jun-21-09    Fusilli: Thanks, <zanshin>, I'll drop a note for hms123. Jun-21-09    hms123: <Fusilli> I sent an email to your Vanderbilt address. Welcome. Jun-23-09    zanshin: <Fusilli> It's good that <howard> has contacted you. It's good to have friends in high places and he's a very powerful man in Vanderbilt! Jun-23-09    hms123: <zanshin> Just a lowly professor. By the way, your name came up at lunch. Jun-23-09    zanshin: <howard> Cool! I'm honored ;-) Jun-23-09    Fusilli: Hey, <zanshin>! We had a nice Middle Eastern lunch (and Howard picked up the bill as a welcome gift; thanks!) Lots of good places in Nashville, I am thrilled to be here. And who knows, maybe I'll get some chess club started at Vandy... Jun-23-09    zanshin: I wish I could have joined you .. especially since <howard> was buying ;-) I've been to Nashville a couple of times and agree it's a great city. Congrats on the move! Jun-24-09    Fusilli: Asked about his yearly earnings through chess, Cyrus Lakdawala, IM, answers: "It really varies. I don't want to go into salary, but it's not very great. It's like having a pretty crappy job. It's like having a job where you go, 'This is a dead-end job.'" (From http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/...) Jun-24-09    zanshin: <Fusilli> I've always wondered about the average earnings of GMs in the US. I'm sure it varies depending on popularity of the player as most of the income must come from lessons, schools, books, instructional materials, etc. in addition to tournament winnings. I have not been able to find any statistics though. Jun-25-09    Fusilli: Someone who works for a publisher of chess books put it this way to me: "Most grandmasters are starving". The statement is a bit extreme, but it does reflect the fact that very few can make a decent living from chess only, at least in the U.S. (I don't know about Europe.) Jul-05-09    hms123: <Fusilli> Congrats on a great performance in Philadelphia! Jul-06-09    zanshin: <Fusilli> Can you give us some details on Philadelphia? Also, when you were in Louisiana, did you ever bump into Dr. Tansel Turgut Jul-09-09    Fusilli: Hi there guys! Yes, I did really well, sharing third place in the under 2200 section. I was co-leading going into the last round, but I never had a chance to win the last game. In fact, I was lucky to draw it. I am winning 40 rating points, going back up to master level :) I'm still in Philly, flying back to Nashville on Saturday. Then I'll post some interesting positions from my games. I could have lost as many as three of them, but I wiggled myself out of trouble, or had a lot of luck, and ended up undefeated. Now I'm thinking of playing the US Open in Indianapolis in August! Jul-10-09    blacksburg: muppets unite!!! Jul-10-09    Fusilli: One... two... muppets, ha ha ha!! (thunder in the background) Jul-10-09    Benzol: The next muppet movie "Bert and Ernie meet Count von Count and the Cookie Monster". :) Jul-12-09    refutor: <fusilli> any games worth posting? Jul-12-09    zanshin: <Fusilli> Check out this link: Kibitzing Tricks Jul-12-09    hms123: <Fusilli> If you have the games on Fritz you can just use the <copy position> command and then use either <Control V> or a <right click> to paste the diagram into the kibitzing box. Jul-12-09    Fusilli: Thanks, I'm looking at it. Will be posting a few things shortly. Jul-12-09    Fusilli: Scott T. Low (2183) v. Mariano Sana (2179), World Open 2009, under 2200 section, round 8. Black to play: click for larger view The right move here was 26...Rf8. I played the much fancier 26...Qxe1, and the game continued as follows: 27. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 28.Kf2 Rb8 29.Qf4 Re5! (without this move black would be lost) 30.Qxd4 Rd8 31.Qxa4 Re7 32.Qc6 Rdxd7 33.a4 Rd6 34.Qc5 h6 35.a5 Kh7 36.h3 Re4 37.Qxc7 Ra6 click for larger view Afterward, the a-pawn fell, and so did the d-pawn. Since black can never lose this, and the c-pawn is not dangerous, I turned down a draw offer and tried unsuccessfully to pick up a kingside pawn. He found a perpetual. Now, back to the first diagram. As it turns out, 26... Qxe1 loses. How? Here's the diagram after 26...Qxe1: click for larger view Jul-12-09    Fusilli: Abby Marshall (2190) v. Mariano Sana (2179), World Open 2009, under 2200 section, round 7. Black to play after 25.Bc1: click for larger view 25...Rfe8! 26.Bxe3 fxe3 click for larger view Chances are probably about equal, but black has a subjective advantage: his side is easier to play in this position. White can get tangled up. 27.g3 Re7 28.Bg2 f4 29.gxf4 gxf4 click for larger view This is what I meant. This is not easy to play for white. Fritz picks 30.Kh1 as white's best move and says black is slightly better. Probably concerned with the sequence ...Ng4, ...Nf2, she played 30.h3? The game continued: 30...Nh5 31.Rf3 Ng3 32.Qd3 Rg7 click for larger view ...and white is horrible here. As speculated, white got all tangled up. Here she missed a simple tactic, but the position is now -2.49 according to Fritz. 33.Qc3? Bxh3 34.Qxg7+ (pretty much forced) Kxg7 35.Bxh3 Qe5 36.Bg2 Qd4 37.Kh2 Qd2... white will have to give up a rook for the e-pawn. 0-1 in 43. Jul-12-09    Fusilli: Mariano Sana (2179) v. Hernando Barrios-Lujan (2089), World Open 2009, under 2200 section, round 4. Black to play: click for larger view The position is even, but Black played 29...Bd7? and White got a strong attack by opening the a1-h8 diagonal for his queen with 30.e6! (It was 1-0 in 42). Question: How does White defend if Black goes for 29...Rg7, 30...Qe8, 31...Qg6, threatening mate? Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 114) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 114 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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