Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Jan-18-26 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 6341 times to chessgames   [more...]

Jan-12-26 Fusilli chessforum   Fusilli: <arek> Good to see you around here, my friend, though those are distressing news I'm sorry to hear. I have now recovered, I am back in the classroom, life has returned to normal. I still have a minor lingering cough, which I hope gets tired of me and leaves me soon. Cheers.      Jan-10-26 Sax vs Karpov, 1989    Fusilli: <perfidious> Well, that merits some discussion. For a while, white has been preferring d3 in move 5 or 6, but if white chooses the traditional closed set up, and doesn't go for 8.a4, the Breyer continues to be black's top preference on move 9. (I play it frequently in blitz ...      Jan-09-26 Kasparov vs Nunn, 1989    Fusilli: <Check It Out: I also assumed Nunn would be saved by something but if the kibitzing here is to be believed, it's Kasparov who was fortunate to make a draw.> My reaction too, though without reading any kibitzing first. I played through the game and got the feeling that Kasparov      Jan-04-26 NN vs G Chandler, 1995   Fusilli: Or Ke7 instead of Nxc1, right? I'm happy to see Ke7 and not O-O, btw. Reminds me of the famous Ed Lasker vs G Thomas, 1912 , where many folks claim that O-O-O# would have been "cool" by comparison to the "boring" Kd2#, which Lasker played. Nonsense. The king doesn't need to rush to      Jan-03-26 chessgames.com chessforum    Fusilli: Suggestion: Can the Russian Championship Superfinal (2005) , which he won, be added to the list of Sergei Rublevsky notable tournaments?      Jan-02-26 Petrosian vs Unzicker, 1960   Fusilli: That king relocation is epic. No reason to rush g4!      Jan-02-26 Biographer Bistro    Fusilli: Can Russian Championship Superfinal (2005) , which he won, be added to the list of Sergei Rublevsky notable tournaments?      Jan-01-26 Portisch vs I Radulov, 1974    Fusilli: This is absolutely mind-boggling.      Jan-01-26 A Isanzhulov vs Ivanchuk, 2025   Fusilli: Poor Ivanchuk.      Dec-30-25 M Miazhynski vs J Durana, 2025    Fusilli: Wait, what? 6.O-O? Bc5? Surely someone messed up the score sheet!

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My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 22 OF 114 ·  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 114) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 22 OF 114 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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