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!

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 20 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Dec-30-10    Fusilli: <Wayne> Thanks, I'll take a look... and hopefully figure out White's inaccuracy... That will probably be the move where I go: "hey, that's what *I* would have played here!" :-) Dec-30-10    dakgootje: <King Moi><Cash is king> You are cash? Or are you The King? Are you Elvis [who obviously did not die] or Johnny Cash [who obviously did not die] or are you an ex-Royalist supporter of King Charles I called James? I'm bribable to hide your secret real identify, for the 34-room mansion after you castle next tern. Sounds like a fair deal to me! Dec-30-10    Albertan: Mariano, you may or may not know about the following game. Karpov vs Ulf Andersson, 1969 GM Kevin Spraggett currently has analysis of this game on his blog at under the blog post heading: "Monday, December 27, 2010 One of my favourite games". You will have to put the words in quotes in the search engine at the top of the blog to access this blog post of his. Dec-30-10    Albertan: Oops I forget to tell you that GM Spraggett's blog is at: http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/. Dec-30-10    crawfb5: Ok, you got me to try a GTM game after a <very> long layoff. <WE ARE NOW FOLLOWING Botvinnik vs Levenfish, 1937. YOU ARE PLAYING THE ROLE OF BOTVINNIK. Your score: 117 (par = 96)> Not bad for Doreen trying to come in and talk to me about absolutely nothing multiple times and the dogs barking at shadows out on the street. I think the sun may have been in my eyes as well... Dec-30-10    dakgootje: Alright - I shall try the guess the move-game next year.. I'm gone tomorrow probably :P Dec-30-10    Fusilli: <Albertan> I played through the <Bareev v Timman> game. Nice one! I have two candidates for the inaccuracy: the maneouver Ne1-f2, and exf5. What does Timman say? Dec-31-10    Fusilli: <Wayne> I couldn't find the post on <Karpov v Andersson> on Spraggett's blog. The search feature seems to find the game (judging from the two lines of text preview) but then the link gives me an error. On the other hand, I looked around the blog and found his comments on this very exciting attacking game: Portisch vs S Johannessen, 1966. Dec-31-10    Phony Benoni: <Fusilli>: See if this link works for the <Karpov v Andersson> game: http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/... Dec-31-10    chancho: Feliz Año Nuevo <Fusilli>! Dec-31-10    Fusilli: <C> That's a good score on GTM! You should go back to competition too! Dec-31-10    chancho: Gracias <Fusilli>! Dec-31-10    technical draw: Thank you, <Fusilli> have a happy and prosperous new year 2011. Dec-31-10    Open Defence: Happy New Year!!! Dec-31-10    wordfunph: <Fusilli> Happy New Year! Dec-31-10    WinKing: Happy New Year to you <Fusilli>! Dec-31-10    crawfb5: Happy New Year, <M>! In 2011, may your opponents not realize they've been swindled until after you've left the tournament site. Dec-31-10    Albertan: Happy New Year Mariano! Thanks for the great year of interesting conversation and enlightenment! Dec-31-10    Albertan: Mariano, Phony Benoni (David) has kindly provided a direct link for you to the GM Spraggett analysis of the Karpov-Andersson game. Dec-31-10    Albertan: <Albertan> I played through the > <Bareev v Timman> game. Nice one!> Mariano, I am glad you enjoyed playing through it! :) < I have two candidates for the> <inaccuracy: the maneouver Ne1-f2,> < and exf5. What does Timman say?> Mariano, one of the inaccuracies was 24.Qd3. Timman states: "This hesitant move is probably the cause of White's future problems.24.Rhe1 was called for." You found the other inaccuracy congratulations! Timman, in reference to the capture 27.exf5 states: "Opening the position like this may have been White's decisive error,but at this point it was hard to foresee." Jan-01-11    Knight13: <Fusilli> I wish you an even better new year than last year! Jan-01-11    Fusilli: Thanks <Knight>! Thanks, <Albertan>... I'm glad I caught exf5 to be a problem! Jan-01-11    jessicafischerqueen: <Marnie (by Alfred Hitchcock)> Happy New year to you too! Also, I'm surprised it took me this long to tell you how much I enjoyed your film. Jan-02-11    Fusilli: <K>... and I forgot to say, happy new year to you!! Jan-02-11    dakgootje: Just started playing Levenfish, back in 1937. Can tell you, this is not going to be a 100+ performance for me -- dropping points left right and center and we only just started :P Not really an opening-expert though, so did not really expect much more. Not that I am <much> better in the middle-game. Or endgame. I'm more of a 'spectator'. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 20 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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