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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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 22 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Also if you want to defend instead of attack for a change, try Hort vs Seirawan, 1981. You play as black and Hort early on has a heap of pressure although I suspect he is over-extending so we, black, might get a smashing counter-attack. Also, I already have 20 points after move 10, so this game certainly has Outstanding-chances seeing it is a par-47 [34-mover]. Jan-04-11    Fusilli: Go <dak>! (On Hort-Seirawan) Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Hort vs Seirawan, 1981. YOU ARE PLAYING THE ROLE OF SEIRAWAN. Your score: 65 (par = 47*) * it has now become par-48. -- Could've even been higher! But Seira and I, we differed in plans a couple of times. My first outstanding for a game where the par is higher than 10 lol ...and the overall rating still as average - this really is very odd. Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Dreev vs Ivanchuk, 1995 Oct-03-08 60 64 AVERAGE Kasparov vs Beliavsky, 1983 Oct-03-08 50 60 NEEDS WORK Tarrasch vs Gunsberg, 1890 Oct-04-08 15 5 OUTSTANDING! Petrosian vs Taimanov, 1955 Sep-14-09 38 30 VERY GOOD Botvinnik vs Levenfish, 1937 Jan-02-11 108 98 GOOD S Bogner vs K Szabo, 2007 Jan-03-11 13 6 OUTSTANDING! Radjabov vs M Goguadze, 1996 Jan-03-11 58 51 GOOD Korchnoi vs Timman, 1988 Jan-03-11 66 56 GOOD Hort vs Seirawan, 1981 Jan-04-11 65 48 OUTSTANDING! You have taken 9 quizzes to date. OVERALL RATING: AVERAGE <---> Perhaps I can re-do the Kasparov game or something lol Jan-04-11    Fusilli: <dak> I think you should submit an inquiry to cg.com. Something is wrong. Congratulations on another "outstanding"! Jan-04-11    Open Defence: nice! Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Merci! I think I'll first make it to 10 taken quizzes before sending a question - but it certainly is in the back of my mind. <OD> Have you done a lot of these GTM's? You must be mighty good at them! :D Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Did just you do the Hort-Seirawan game and achieve a monster-score of 80 or something? :P Just noticed the par shot to 50 and I devolved from 'outstanding' to 'very good' :P Jan-04-11    SwitchingQuylthulg: That was me, but I only scored 68 ;-) Jan-04-11    dakgootje: Very nice! Due to my score, it only went up from 47 to 48 so I supposed it would've been higher. Heh, some pars are easier to obtain than others - this one clearly 'exploitable' :P Jan-04-11    Fusilli: <dak> <this one clearly 'exploitable' :P> Uh oh... I predict a run on the Hort-Seirawan game! Everybody, take out your deposits from the H&S Bank! It's going under!! Jan-04-11    Fusilli: BTW, now I have to catch up with work, but tonight I might give it a try. :-) Jan-04-11    Albertan: Mariano, while I was re-reading some of my old New In Chess Magazines I found a very interesting game."It" is not a Nimzo-Indian Defense game, rather it is an example of one of the few times GM Jan Timman has played the Marshall Attack (Ruy Lopez) as black in his career. His opponent in this game is Vassily Ivanchuk and believe it or not in this game Ivanchuk deliberately places two of his pieces en prise at the same time, and Timman decides not to take either piece! Here is the link to the game for you and anyone else who is interested in playing through the moves of this game: Ivanchuk vs Timman, 1999 Jan-05-11    Knight13: <Fusilli> I asked because I knew you'd give an interesting answer. Jan-05-11    dakgootje: Heh, just GTM'ed Portisch vs Gheorghiu, 1970 -- that did not really work out :P You play as white and every time I thought it was time to attack he played some slow-and-steady move and visa versa. Only managed a 'good', with 57 on -now- a par 48; suppose that means most of my moves were reasonable though. Not satisfied anymore with 'good' :P Jan-05-11    Fusilli: <dak> So, "good" is not good enough for you, eh? :-) Let's go for outstanding! Jan-06-11    dakgootje: Guess what.. :D Just scored another outstanding ;) Won't say the game this time because you will see the par will shoot up again.. but playing around with letters and words, it is reminiscent of Robson vs The Firm played in 2003 in the 2nd Harvey Milk Tournament. Well, that should not be too hard ;D Jan-06-11    Fusilli: <dak> Your clever puzzles don't scare me. The answer is... Eskimos! Jan-06-11    dakgootje: Nice guess! But I suspect most Eskimos are lactose-intolerant and would therefore skip the tournament. Jan-07-11    Fusilli: I've been so busy these last few days! I'll get back to GTM soon, I hope! Jan-07-11    Fusilli: WE ARE NOW FOLLOWING Hort vs Seirawan, 1981. YOU ARE PLAYING THE ROLE OF SEIRAWAN. Your score: 71 (par = 51) It did give me the outstanding grade :-) ... now par is 52. Nice defense/attack game. Jan-09-11    Fusilli: Music City Open, Dec 14, 2010, round 4: David Justice (2197) v. Mariano Sana (2170) click for larger view White to play. Jan-09-11    hms123: <Mariano> Did he really play <1.Qxe7 Kc8 2. Qe8+ Kb7 3.Be1!>? That would be a heck of a find OTB. That deserves a diagram: click for larger view Jan-09-11    Fusilli: <H> He didn't. Like me, he only saw the perpetual check. I only saw it when I entered the game on the computer. Pretty nice, uh? Jan-10-11    hms123: <Mariano> It's always easier when you are looking for something spectacular. Once you see it, it is <obvious>. The rook needs to check on b3, so the bishop needs to get out of the way. Where else but e1 to interfere with the mate on h1? I bet the POTD folks would get this one. Maybe a Thursday puzzle? The good news is that you got a draw out of it. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 22 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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