Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Dec-09-25 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 6310 times to chessgames   [more...]

Dec-09-25 N Theodorou vs G Jones, 2025   Fusilli: <number 23> I just read your profile blurb. I totally identify with this! <My specialty is getting into trouble out of the opening because I don't prepare well, then hoodwinking points out of players through a variety of creative and fortunate swindles.>      Dec-09-25 G Garcia Gonzalez vs Velimirovic, 1982   Fusilli: Position after 55...Qc4 [DIAGRAM] The black queen is annoying, but white can't push her away easily. If 56.Rb4 Qd3 repeats the position. And obviously, 56. R or Qc3 runs into Ne2+. 56.Kh2! And it turns out that 56...Nd3 doesn't win material. White gets to trade queens and loses a ...      Dec-09-25 Botvinnik vs Tal, 1961   Fusilli: Another nice positional squeeze in this line is L Christiansen vs G Garcia Gonzalez, 1982 .      Dec-09-25 Fusilli chessforum   Fusilli: If y'all are in the mood for a really, really tough puzzle (a mate in 3) check out my post on Murray Marble The post also has the link to the solution for when you give up!      Dec-08-25 Murray Marble   Fusilli: Murray Marble, 1908 Mate in 3 [DIAGRAM] When you give up, see the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCU... (Or ask your engine, of course)      Dec-07-25 J Friedman vs Gulko, 1993   Fusilli: This is a big <oops!> of a game.      Dec-06-25 J Cuenca Jimenez vs F Oro, 2025   Fusilli: What an interesting positional game. Black's bishop looks bad, but white has his own pawn structure weakness, and Faustino maneuvered admirably.      Dec-06-25 Faustino Oro    Fusilli: I usually don't care to cheer for any GM in particular, but I second my fellow Argentinian <Augalv>!      Dec-05-25 London Chess Classic (2025)    Fusilli: <keypusher> Check the email I sent you on 11/23, please.      Nov-30-25 F Baumbach vs Y Sakharov, 1977   Fusilli: Black seems to have had trouble managing his queen here. 3...Qe7 looks like an odd choice. The queen is misplaced in the KID scheme that followed, to the point that black eventually sends her back to d8. Later, 15...Qc7 misplaces the queen again. (The computer says 15...b5 gives ...

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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 104 OF 114 ·  Later Kibitzing> Feb-08-25    Stonehenge: Perhaps https://www.365chess.com/tournament... but I'm not going to check all players :) Feb-08-25    Fusilli: I found a proposal for the renaming of various paths within a Montevideo park in honor of four Uruguayan sportsmen. Olivera is one of them, so he was dead by April 2006 (https://montevideo.gub.uy/asl/siste...), when the proposal was first discussed. (In Latin culture, you do not name places in honor of still-living folks. Plus the text about him is in past tense!) I'm still poking around, looking for the date. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: <stonehenge> Good trick... to look for senior tournaments. Maybe we should ban those? (Also, the premise was that they need to be in this database.) Sorry to be picky... just trying to have some fun! Feb-08-25    jnpope: Reggio Emilia (1962/63) is a contender (no data on Claus Fleischmann) Feb-08-25    Fusilli: <jnpope> Mysterious Fleischmann... the only tournament of his life, and a disaster... The tournament "loses" to Buenos Aires (1964) though. I posted that one below, but then I posted too much! Feb-08-25    Stonehenge: Kick Langeweg is still alive and er... kicking BTW. Feb-08-25    jnpope: 5th Correspondence World Championship (1965) Presuming Arne Ericson is gone as his bio mentions him in the past tense. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: <jnpope> Hmmm... 106 is very, very old. Not impossible, and there are almost 90,000 centenarians in Europe. But of course the odds are against Ericson (also, the large majority of those centenarians are women, and also younger than 106). I'd say, let's accept the assumption. (I am not persuaded by the bio, btw... the editor may have just assumed he is dead.) I think we need a Swedish-speaker user to take a little dive into the web and see if there is any evidence of death somewhere... Maybe <moro> or <Troller> can read Swedish? Aren't Swedish and Danish as close as Spanish and Portuguese? Feb-08-25    jnpope: Asztalos Memorial (1966) Feb-08-25    jnpope: Pro-tip: search tournaments with a lot of Eastern Bloc participants, they tended to be heavy smokers. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: <jnpope: Pro-tip: search tournaments with a lot of Eastern Bloc participants, they tended to be heavy smokers.> lol... sure, but among the players in that one tournament, only two died relatively young (age 50 and 51), while the other ones lived long lives, including the very long-lived Lilienthal and Paoli. OK, then, Asztalos Memorial (1966) is in the lead now. Feb-08-25    moronovich: <Aren't Swedish and Danish as close as Spanish and Portuguese?> For shure they are. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: This tournament does not qualify, but it's a close enough example of <jnpope>'s approach: From the players at October Revolution 50 (1967), the one player not from a Communist country (Westerinen) is alive (80 years old), although Hort (81) also is. The other 16 are gone. I say <Communist country> instead of <Eastern bloc> to include Cuban Jimenez. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: Almost Sarajevo (1967). Vukic (age 82) is the only survivor of this 16-player round robin. Feb-08-25    Fusilli: Man, I can't beat the Asztalos Memorial (1966). And, for the first time in a long time, I feel I have spent too much time on chessgames.com (better than wasting time on Instagram though). So, calling it a day... although I will check in later to see if someone found a more recent tournament of the departed. Feb-09-25    areknames: <I think we need a Swedish-speaker user to take a little dive into the web and see if there is any evidence of death somewhere...> I've tried for a while now, no success. All the more strange, considering Ericson is a highly unusual spelling of the surname for someone born in 1918. Ericsson and of course Eriksson are normal. <Aren't Swedish and Danish as close as Spanish and Portuguese?> More close, I'd say. Native Swedish and Danish speakers can understand each other fairly effortlessly, is that the case for Spanish and Portuguese? Feb-09-25    Stonehenge: It's easiest to find tournaments here: Tournament Index For example: Venice (1967). Enough from me already. I'll let others do the work :) Feb-09-25    areknames: <For example: Venice (1967).> Yes! The tournament where the old Master Remo Calapso managed to draw against the reigning WC. Seems we have a new front-runner. Feb-09-25    Fusilli: <areknames> <Native Swedish and Danish speakers can understand each other fairly effortlessly, is that the case for Spanish and Portuguese?> In my experience, Portuguese-speaking folks understand Spanish-speaking folks better than the other way around. I find Brazilians from Rio not so easy to understand, and definitely not if they speak fast. Those from Sao Paulo are easier to understand for me. But Brazilians seem to have no trouble understanding us Argentinians. Not sure why that is... maybe the pronunciation of some letter combinations in Portuguese defies what Spanish ears consider "natural"... if that makes sense. Feb-09-25    Fusilli: Speaking of Danish and Swedish, my wife and I are well into the second season of the Danish/Swedish show Bron/Broen (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/) on Apple TV+. I fully recommend it! It's a police drama with good touches of humor. Feb-09-25    Fusilli: <Stonehenge: It's easiest to find tournaments here: Tournament Index> Thank you for that reminder. This exercise is making me realize that this database is probably full of ghosts... players who are dead but for whom there is no date of death. I think I am going to devote some of my volunteer efforts to track some old Argentine players. Feb-09-25    areknames: <Fusilli> Eh, as a native Italian speaker it's relatively easy for me to understand Spanish if spoken slowly. Furthermore, I understand Portuguese better than I do the Neapolitan dialect ;) Feb-10-25    Troller: I did some quick searches as well with no success on <Arne Ericson>. As mentioned by <areknames> the spelling is so strange one wonders if he really was named e.g. <Ericsson>. I am Danish and not member of a Swedish chess club, so I do not have access to <Tidskrift för Schack> which otherwise might be a good place to search: https://tidskriftfor.schack.se/ Feb-10-25    Stonehenge: You'll need this link: https://schack.se/forbundet/tfs/ark... or <"arne ericson" site:https://schack.se/> I get 29 results with that search. Feb-10-25    Fusilli: <arek> <stone> <Troller> Thanks for your efforts, team! In the meantime, I found out and filled in dates of death for Uruguayan Alfredo Olivera, and the Argentines Lauro Varas and Carlos Eleodoro Juarez. I also found out that a number of other old Argentine players are indeed alive and kicking. In my spare time, I'll keep checking on Spanish-speaking old players' bios. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 114) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 104 OF 114 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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