Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Sep-10-25 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 6250 times to chessgames   [more...]

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-10-25 A Mittal vs Y K Erdogmus, 2025    Fusilli: This is an incredible beautiful finish.      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!      Aug-18-25 keypusher chessforum   Fusilli: <keypusher> <I am afraid so.> lol My dad was a lawyer and my family expected me to follow on his footsteps and inherit his practice. But at the time of choosing what to do in college, I wanted something that mixed the study of social issues and statistics, so I went for ...      Aug-17-25 Mihai Suba    Fusilli: I googled Mihai Suba health and found something to the effect that he had some health trouble in 2014 requiring a spell in the hospital. That is very little to go by, but it was around that time that his rating began to decline.      Aug-16-25 Daniel Fleetwood   Fusilli: He's my colleague at Vanderbilt. Super nice guy and an incredibly productive researcher. One of Vanderbilt's jewels, really. He helped me assemble my fancy mobility scooter, which required some skills that I did not have and he has plenty of.

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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-12-09    hms123: <Fusilli> In the <Low/Sana> game that black rook at <b2> looks awfully loose. Perhaps an <x-ray> attack/defense is in order. Jul-12-09    Fusilli: <hms123> okay, so the loose rook is the key. But how do you exploit it? Jul-12-09    hms123: <Fusilli> I knew but didn't want to spoil it for others. I thought the clues were enough. <27. ...Qc1> Jul-12-09    Fusilli: <hms123> Yeah, 27.Qc1 it is! I think it's fair to give it at least one "!" The funny thing is that, in the game, I saw that move when I first looked at 26...Qxe1. Then I discarded 26...Qxe1 and looked for a while at 26...Rf8. I wasn't happy with it and went back to 26...Qxe1 and I couldn't remember why I had discarded it! Daniel A Yeager brought it up as soon as we finished the game. Jul-12-09    hms123: <Fusilli> It happens to the best of us. Not an easy move to find though. Jul-13-09    Fusilli: BTW, <zanshin>, I never ran into Dr Turgut. He was LA state champion in 1997. He is now listed as resident of IL on the USCF website. Do you know him? Jul-13-09    zanshin: <Fusilli> in your game, I couldn't see why <27.Qc1> was winning because I did not notice the pawn about to queen. I guess I will never be a GM. Dr. Turgut sometimes kibitzes in the Team challenges as User: chesscard - obviously talented chess player. Jul-14-09    Fusilli: In <Sana/Barrios-Lujan> the correct defense against Rg7-Qe8-Qg6 is to position white's bishops in f2 and f3, thus covering all the squares. So white goes Bf3, Be1, Bf2. If then black plays Bh4, then white has Qe1. After all that black has to go back to defend the a4 pawn with Ra7 and it's pretty much even. I just thought it was a neat question, since the Rg7-Qg6 battery on the open g-file looks scary. Jul-14-09    Fusilli: And to finish my World Open series --I am not really this egomaniac, I am laughing at myself :) -- here's a game that dramatically changed course. Bradley Sawyer (2199) v. Mariano Sana (2179), World Open under 2200 section, round 5. Position after white's sixteenth move: click for larger view Fritz evaluation: +1.66 Position after 32...Qh4: click for larger view Fritz evaluation: -6.93 0-1 after 33.Qf3 Bxd5. I still can't believe I pulled that through! But again, this just means that I made my mistakes first and my opponent made his later. Jul-14-09    zanshin: The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. - Tartakover Jul-14-09    Fusilli: <zanshin> Indeed! (Unless, of course, the player who makes the next-to-last mistake is also the player who makes the last mistake) :) I like Joel Benjamin's approach to this. The goal is not to play a perfect game--nobody can do that. The goal is to outplay your opponent. Jul-15-09    hms123: I had a great time today going over your games. Thanks--hms Jul-15-09    Fusilli: <hms123> So did I! Jul-18-09    Fusilli: Can someone out there try Vaganian v. Ulf Andersson (1968) on Guess-the-Move? I just went over it and scored above par (I scored 90 and par is 69) but I didn't really know what Vaganian was doing... Some of my guesses were penalized with point losses, which makes me certain that I would have made white lose. Black was surely looking dangerous out of the opening. Jul-23-09    TheAlchemist: <Fusilli> If I may intrude, I saw your question on the chessgames.com forum, one thing you may employ temporarily until the issue is fixed is using "hard spaces", i.e. typing "&_nbsp" without the "_", you are not limited as with "normal" spaces and can use as many as you want. It is a pain and very primitive, I admit (you have to constantly preview how it looks among other things). You can check out one of my tables I did this way here: positionalgenius chessforum Jul-23-09    Fusilli: <TheAlchemist> Thanks, that definitely looks good on my browser (Internet Explorer, like most people). I'll try it once I assemble my first tournament game collection. Jul-25-09    Fusilli: I know, I know ICC blitz games are the most frivolous thing in the world, but I have to share this one... 3 minute game, I am black: Position after 12.a4: click for larger view 12...a5 13.b5 c5 14.dxc5 bxc5 click for larger view I love this pawn structure for black. I had seen Short play this way with black, with good results. See, for example Timman vs Short, 1993. As it turns out, White's b passed pawn is toothless and Black can create threats after pushing the d-pawn, which is what happened in this game. Fast forward to position after 24.Kf1 (White is trying to get out of the pin): click for larger view 24...Ng4 (looking for something; maybe there are better moves) 25.h3 Na2+! 26.Kg1: click for larger view 26...Qxh3! (discarding 26...Nf3+ 27.gxf3 Qxh3 28.Ng3 Bxf3 29.Bf1) 27.Nf4 Nf3+ 27.gxf3 Rg5+ 0-1 Jul-31-09    Fusilli: The US Open starts tomorrow! Advance entries here: http://main.uschess.org/component/o... I'm playing the 6-day schedule, but took a bye on the first round, as I'll be driving up that day (Tuesday) and don't want to play tired that same evening. Aug-07-09    hms123: Mariano Sana Aug-07-09    Ragh: Hi Fusilli, Your profile says you have a rating of 2219 USCF. Does that rating means you are officially titled an NM or LM or "simply" a Master? How did the US Open go for you? Aug-08-09    Fusilli: <Ragh> I know 2200 is considered the threshold to master, but I don't think there is an official master title. I don't really know, but I don't think so. Will ask. Life master, I think, is someone who's been over 2200 for a large number of games. Check out <lifemasterAJ> profile, I think he explains it. After seven rounds at the US Open, I have 4.5 points (+3 -1 =2 and a half-point bye). Two more to go! Aug-15-09    Albertan: Hello, Mariano, thanks for visiting my forum and thanks especially for your kind words regarding my performance in the 2009 Canadian Open Chess championships. Congratulations on your wonderful performance at the US Open!! So you are an Associate Professor of Sociology! Fantastic, I took a number of courses in Sociology in my undergraduate work at the University of Alberta. I really find sociology fascinating. My sister majored in Sociology before she went onto Law School,she should have stayed in sociology,the people who work in Sociology are much nicer! My father was a Professor at the University of Alberta, here in Edmonton. Best wishes to you in your academic,chess and personal lives! :) Aug-15-09    Albertan: <Fusilli: <Ragh> I know 2200 is considered the threshold to master, but I don't think there is an official master title. I don't really know, but I don't think so.> Actually, the FIDE does have official master titles. One is known as the "FIDE Master" title. The FIDE began awarding it to players in 1978. FM ranks below the titles of International Master and International Grandmaster, but ahead of Candidate Master.The Candidate Master (CM) title is awarded by the world chess governing body, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE). when a player achieves a Elo rating of 2200 or more. Aug-15-09    Fusilli: Thanks <Albertan>! It was at the World Open that I did really well. At the US Open I did okay. I got 6 points: +4 =3 -1 and a half-point bye. It's good to win more games than you lose, but all but one of my opponents (my loss against IM Emory A Tate) were rated lower than me, by an average of 200 points or so. In the end, I lost seven points of rating. I will be posting a couple of positions from my US Open games soon. And since these days I am really into playing, I decided to play the Miami Open over labor day weekend. I already booked my flights! About the master title, I am aware of the FM title, which is at a higher level of play than mine. I think <Ragh> meant national master in the US. I know that 2200 is the threshold for US national master, but I doubt there is an actual title, except for life master, which requires a large number of games consistently above 2200. Aug-15-09    Fusilli: <Albertan> Oops, I just noted my profile said "US Open" where it should have said "World Open". I'm going to fix that right now. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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