Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Oct-07-25 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 6255 times to chessgames   [more...]

Oct-07-25 Hikaru Nakamura    Fusilli: Back in the day, I would sometimes resign by picking up my king and placing it in front of my opponent. And one day I read that a GM (I think Sosonko) did the same thing, while saying, "here's, it's yours." So, sure, one for the crowd, why not.      Sep-15-25 L Mendonca vs M Yilmaz, 2024    Fusilli: <perfidious> <There have been POTDs presented by <cg> which have featured positions which were analogous to practical games rather than guess the move> Not sure I follow. To me, Guess-the-Move games do reflect practical play, since you have to make every move, ...      Sep-12-25 Leon Mendonca   Fusilli: Mendonca, no doubt originally spelled with a c-cedilla instead of a c, is a Portuguese surname, a reminder that Portugal colonized parts of India since as early as the 16th century.      Sep-12-25 A Mittal vs Y K Erdogmus, 2025    Fusilli: <FSR: Insane! The kid is a genius! I say he's a future world champion.> I share your enthusiasm but not your evaluation. The combination is absolutely beautiful but not hard to see for a strong player. It's a straight set of forced moves. I think it would be a Friday puzzle ...      Sep-10-25 Fusilli chessforum    Fusilli: <OCF> I'm kind of proud of myself I got it. The word puzzle was apt! Where did you source it from?      Sep-07-25 Karpov vs K Rogoff, 1971   Fusilli: Vintage Karpov gives a lesson on superior positional play. Every piece going to the right square at the right time. Or pretty close to that.      Sep-07-25 S Marangunic vs K Rogoff, 1971    Fusilli: <FTB> OK, here we go. I thought 16.Bxf6 was dubious. Why give up the bishop pair in a fairly open position? 16.Ne3 looks better to me. I was wondering what could be wrong with 23.Nb5. It turns out that after 23...Bf8 24.Rxd7 Rxd7 25.Nxa7 meets ...Bc5 followed by ...Rd2, which ...      Sep-07-25 Fridrik Olafsson    Fusilli: <perf> oh, right, I see      Sep-06-25 Peter Enders    Fusilli: <He died on his birthday :( > Very sad. It reminded me of this demographic research article I saw decades ago: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/143... Abstract: <This study of deaths from natural causes examined adult mortality around the birthday for two samples, ...      Sep-03-25 So vs D Gukesh, 2025   Fusilli: <beatgiant> Because I didn't see it? Or I like complicating things, especially my life? Who knows!

indicates a reply to the comment.

My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 16 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Nov-24-10    Albertan: Mariano yes up here in Canada we celebrate our Thanksgiving in October, don't ask me why. Statistics assignments? How fun :) I took a senior level statistics course in University myself. Wow did I have to memorize alot of formulas for the exams LOL! Our professor wouldn't allow us a formula table or any other tables in our exams. You think your university would have created something on a computer to help you with this sort of task? It certainly wouldn't be difficult to test them online or at a computer station...all of them at once would it? Nov-24-10    Albertan: < Fusilli: I've been enjoying going over a number of Najdorf-Reshevsky Nimzoindian games.> I have the two playing 21 games in the Nimzo-Indian defense in their careers in Chessbase Megadatabase 2010. When Najdorf had white (14 of these games) he scored 3 wins, lost 3 games and drew 8 games. When Reshevsky had white (7 games) ,he scored 2 wins, 4 draws and one loss. Nov-24-10    Fusilli: <Albertan> I guess all of them are in the cg.com database, where there are 23 Nimzoindian games between the two of them, with Reshevsky winning a total of six and Najdorf a total of four. You are not missing a Reshevsky win because that seems to be a duplicated game, a typical problem with the cg.com database. I will check and submit a correction slip if appropriate. I like their games because they represent a clash of styles (strategic Reshevsky v. tactical Najdorf, to put it crudely) and the Nimzo is an opening that I don't mind playing with either color--they obviously didn't either. Nov-25-10    hms123: <Mariano> A puzzle for you: Black to play and draw click for larger view Nov-25-10    Fusilli: <H> What I see is 1...Kxh1 2.fxg8=Q Kg1! 3.Qd5 h1=Q+ 4.Qxh1+ Kxh1 5.g8=Q d1=Q 6.Qa8+ Kg1 7.Qa7+ Kf1 8.Qa6+ Ke1= 2...d1=Q? loses to 3.Qa8+ Kg1 4.g8=Q+ 1...Rxg7? loses to 2.f8=Q Kxh1 3.Qf1+ Rg1 4.Qf3+ Rg2 5.Kh3 ..right? Nov-25-10    hms123: <Mariano> Good find. <1...Kxh1> is the only drawing move. The others all lead to quick mates. Nov-25-10    Fusilli: <H> Is it from an actual game? Nov-26-10    hms123: <M> That didn't take long. [Event "Chigorin Mem Classic Open"] [Site "St Petersburg RUS"] [Date "2010.10.31"] [Round "4"] [White "Nuretdinov, I."] [Black "Popelyshev, I."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D35"] [WhiteElo "2242"] [BlackElo "2047"] [PlyCount "102"] [EventDate "2010.10.28"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. cxd5 exd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 c6 7. Bd3 Be7 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Nge2 Re8 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 11. h3 g6 12. g4 Bd6 13. O-O-O b5 14. Kb1 a5 15. Nf4 b4 16. Na4 Bxf4 17. exf4 Ba6 18. Bxa6 Rxa6 19. Rhe1 Ne4 20. Nc5 Nxc5 21. Qxc5 Qd7 22. Re5 f6 23. Rxe8+ Qxe8 24. Qd6 Kf7 25. Rc1 Qe7 26. Qxe7+ Kxe7 27. Kc2 a4 28. Kd3 a3 29. b3 Kd7 30. h4 Ra8 31. f3 Re8 32. Rh1 h5 33. Rg1 Ke6 34. Kd2 Rh8 35. Re1+ Kd7 36. Rh1 Kd6 37. Kd3 c5 38. dxc5+ Kxc5 39. f5 gxf5 40. g5 fxg5 41. hxg5 h4 42. Ke3 d4+ 43. Kf4 h3 44. Kxf5 d3 45. f4 d2 46. g6 Kd4 47. Kg5 Ke4 48. f5 h2 49. g7 Rg8 50. f6 Kf3 51. Kh4 Kg2 1-0 Nov-26-10    hms123: <M> the position would have occurred if White had played <52.f7?>. Nov-28-10    hms123: <M> Here's another position in which you will have no trouble finding the winning move. :-) click for larger view (White to play) Nov-29-10    Fusilli: <H> Well, what I see is 1.f5 and White seems to have a crushing attack. If 1...gxf5 2.Qxh5 Kg7 (what else?) 3.Rg1 and Black is cooked. If 1...Nc5 2.fxg6 fxg6 3.Rf1+ followed by 4.Bg5, or 3.Bg5 first... they both look crushing. To be safer, white could play 3.d4 first, so as to kick out the Knight all the way back to b7--who knows, maybe later there will be an e5 threatening the N with the B on g2. Is it more complicated than this? Nov-30-10    hms123: <M> No, it is not more complicated. I just thought you would enjoy a chance to play <f5> after being so "reluctant" to do so the other day at my place. :-) Dec-01-10    hms123: <M> Good defensive puzzle at my place. I am going with <....Bc6>. Dec-01-10    Fusilli: <H> Indeed! click for larger view 25...Bc6! saves the day for Black, who maybe thought White had 26.Qd8+ winning... which would be the case if Black didn't have 26...Be8 and the Queen is now defending the -a8- rook. Strange omission at that level, but it happens. Black played 25...h6 and collapsed: Furman vs Levenfish, 1948 Dec-02-10    Albertan: Wow Mariano,thanks for telling me about the Furman-Averback game,there sure were a lot of fireworks in that game! If I counted correctly both players combined for 10 offered sacrifices of pawns or pieces in that game! And to think that Misha Tal was not one playing in this game either! It would be interesting to know if Tal heard about this game after it was played.According to my database, Tal's first recorded game was in 1949. David Bronstein finished first in this championship and Taimanov finished in last place! Dec-02-10    Fusilli: <and Taimanov finished in last place!> lol, patzer Taimanov! I knew you'd like that game. :-) Dec-04-10    Albertan: Mariano, are you aware of this Nimzo-Indian game? Kasparov vs Short, 1999 This game was analyzed in depth by GM Igor Stohl in his book "Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces" (new enlarged edition published in 2009). Stohl indicates Short could have won this Nimzo-Indian defense opening game if he had played 30...Bc6 instead of 30...Qg7? Stohl assigned Kasparov's 30th move in this game (30.hxg6) a ?!. Dec-05-10    Fusilli: Hi <Wayne>, I had seen that one long ago and had forgotten about it. True about 30...Bc6, but I suspect Short was exhausted by then. A difficult game to play with the Black pieces. Dec-06-10    hms123: <Mariano> <Puzzle Alert> click for larger view White to play and draw. Dec-06-10    Fusilli: <hms> Too hard! I always found dealing with two contiguous knights too mind-boggling. I give up! Dec-06-10    crawfb5: <H> I'm thinking 1. Ng3+ hxg3 2. Nf3 followed by Kxc4 at some point, but it's at the end of a long day, so I doubt I can work it all out to the end. I might not even be on the right track. Dec-07-10    hms123: <Mariano> <crawfb5> Not even the engines get this one. 1.Kc6 g1Q (1...Kg5 2.Nf3+) 2.Nxh4 Qh1+ 3. Nhf3 click for larger view It is from Suba's book <Dynamic Chess Strategy>. Dec-07-10    dakgootje: < crawfb5: <H> I'm thinking 1. Ng3+ hxg3 2. Nf3 followed by Kxc4 at some point> I started on the same track but I think it does not work. It seemed that black could march its h-pawn to victory without much of a fuzz. The real solution is much, much too brilliant for me. Dec-07-10    Fusilli: <H> Wow, letting Black promote was not something that crossed my mind. And the line that <C> and <dak> looked at, I had concluded that Black would run faster to promotion. Is it from a real game?? Dec-07-10    hms123: <M> I don't think it is from a real game. Suba uses it to illustrate the importance of human intuition over the machine. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 16 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members. Nothing in violation of United States law. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members. No trolling. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers. Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times. See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator. NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific user only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors. All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

You are not logged in to chessgames.com. If you need an account, register now; it's quick, anonymous, and free! If you already have an account, click here to sign-in.