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 30 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-19-11    dakgootje: Heh, I think my calculating is improving.. But I've been watching some of the daily briefings with the players from the current Bazna tournament. Overviewwith the players for their gameand a board for, say, 10 minutes per game. God, those guys can calculate :| Interestingly - Nisi seems to play a lot on intuition instead. Sometimes simply assuming a certain main position should easily be won. Jun-19-11    Fusilli: <Nisi seems to play a lot on intuition instead. Sometimes simply assuming a certain main position should easily be won.> Isn't that one of the grandmaster's marks? Or at least the naturally talented grandmasters. Because, definitely, there are naturally talented GMs and GMs that made GM thanks to enormous effort, dedication and work, but are not necessarily so naturally talented. From my teenage days in Argentina, I remember Carlos P Boissonet was probably the most talented player of my generation. He would have made GM if he had cared for it... but he quit chess to do other things that interested him more. On the other hand, Diego Valerga made GM thanks to his hard work. I don't mean at all to belittle Valerga or enshrine Boissonet. Both talent and work are necessary to climb to the top, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov being the most obvious examples. Jun-19-11    Fusilli: Here's a nice Boissonet game: Panno vs C Boissonet, 1990 Jun-19-11    dakgootje: Presumably - or perhaps it didn't go into deep variations to keep it understandable for the audience. The exact opposite of, for instance, Radjabov - who sometimes seems to think everyone can effortless follow him rattle off some variations ;D If you've got half an hour to spare, might be fun watching some of the vids: http://a.blip.tv/scripts/flash/stra... Thought the difference in style was quite obvious if you compare 'Round 3: Nisi' with 'Round 5: Radjabov-Naka' Jun-19-11    dakgootje: Also, I like the briefings with Carlsen - he just shows so much intuition and feel for the game. And he actually really seems to enjoy playing - also important ;) Jun-20-11    Fusilli: <dak> You are right! I just watched Carlsen commenting on his Round 7 win over Ivanchuk. Pretty cool. Jun-20-11    Fusilli: <dak> And then I watched a bunch more. Fun! Jun-21-11    dakgootje: :) I watch a couple of them every day. Currently seen everything up to day 5 - so I still have quite a couple to go :D Going to search more often with these supertournaments for after game-briefings. Quite informative - and simply fun! Jun-21-11    Fusilli: Just played on ICC, 3-min game, I am black: Position after 30.Qf2: click for larger view 30...? Jun-21-11    Fusilli: Well, I played 30...Re2 31.Qxe2 Qxg3+ 32.Kg1 Bc5+ 33.Kf1 Bb5 34.Re1 Qf2 mate, but now I see he should have played 33.Kh1 Qh4+ 34.Bh3 Qxh3+ 35.Qh2 Qxf3+ 36.Qg2. Black is still winning, but it's not mate anymore... Jun-28-11    dakgootje: Hey M :) I think everything will turn out to be okayish. Regained some rating-points in the mean time? ;) Jun-28-11    Fusilli: <dak> Good! Did you regained rating points, or are you asking me if I did? After the tournament reported in my recent posts, I haven't played anything. My rating is at 2145 now, I think, the lowest it's ever been since I resumed playing in the US in 2003. The sad thing is... I am convinced I calculate better, and see more, than most of the opponents I lose to. That's gotta change! I need to be more practical, spend less time calculating, and trust my calculations more! I am driving up north today to spend a week in Philadelphia. I'll play the World Open. Signed up for the under 2400 section... I stopped (for the time being) seeing the point in hoping to play a 2600 GM only to spend enormous amounts of energy and still get wiped out at the slightest mistake. And after that, my wife and I will keep going north and spend five days in Bar Harbor, Maine, following the advice of that local old sage, <hms123>. (But don't tell him I called him "old"... it can remain between you and me... he'll never find that comment here.) Jun-28-11    hms123: <Fusilli> You are correct: old guys never notice a thing. Jun-28-11    dakgootje: I can hardly regain points as I don't posses a rating [which seems required for it]. Well, that is only partly true as I have a rating at chesstempo - solving puzzles. Overall I'm still climbing with occasional slumps but nothing too serious. Currently at 2017 or something there, while my highest has been 2033. Clearly calculating more accurate and deeper than I used to.. However sometimes after some extensive calculation I can only find one minor flaw.. and play it anyway. Think about 2/3 of the time, it is the incorrect move indeed. So I have to trust my calculations a bit more and sometimes be a bit more patient. Let's see how far I can go. Heh, apparently the ratings there are comparable to Fide-ratings with an error of about 150-200 points. So that isn't too trustworthy ;) Jun-28-11    dakgootje: Oh! And best of luck in the World Open obviously! :) Jun-28-11    crawfb5: <H> As Doreen and I tell each other, we're not getting older, we're getting bitter. If you like, I can throw rocks at <M>'s car as he speeds by. Jun-28-11    hms123: <crawfb5> No rocks. He needs a vacation. Unlike me, he has been working too hard. Jun-29-11    Fusilli: <C> <H> Well, since my two car incidents last December (1.crash, 2.vandalism) I reworked my insurance policy to lower my deductible to zero (when I am not at fault), so bring those rocks on! :-) Got to Philly an hour ago, after driving 10 hours today... had started last night with a modest 3-hour segment and made night near Knoxville. Those 3 hours proved very beneficial today, though. Jun-29-11    crawfb5: <M> If you drive through Milford, CT on 95, wave as you pass exit 34 (first exit past the river, heading north). Good luck in the tournament. Jul-02-11    Knight13: <Fusilli> Congratulations on beating the 2223 rated player! Jul-03-11    Fusilli: <Knight> Thanks :-) I got lucky in that one, but it compensated for my horrible blunder in round 2. I took a bye for round 4 and played the longest game of round 5 (pretty much the full 6 hours), which ended in a draw. It was a problem-like endgame. I'm exhausted! Tomorrow I am playing round 6 and taking a bye for round 7. It's 2am, btw, so "tomorrow" is really later today. Jul-04-11    Knight13: <Fusilli> Dude, you beat another 2200+! :-) I see that your chess skill is having a delicious drink with Muhammad Ali. Let me know how you did last round. Jul-04-11    Fusilli: <Knight> Thanks! You know, I used to be 2200+ myself... I'm officially a national master. Recently, I even asked the USCF for my master certificate and they mailed it to me! But I surely wish I were back up there again, but it's proving very difficult. I go down more often than up. My current rating is the vicinity of 2150. The game yesterday (round 6) was pretty good! I was able to create attack with the black pieces and won in 26. Then I took a bye in round 7. Today I lost in round 8... it seems that I forgot everything I ever knew about rook endgames. And the last game was a well-fought draw. Overall, +2 =2 -3... but it was a tough tournament. The average rating of my opponents was about 2180, I think. So, I guess my rating will remain pretty much unchanged. BTW, it was my birthday today! I wish I could have given myself a whole point as a birthday gift! Jul-04-11    Fusilli: BTW, I'll be posting positions from my World Open games in a few days... Jul-05-11    Knight13: <Fusilli> Happy belated birthday, Mariano! I am glad to hear that. I look forward to going over your positions! Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 30 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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