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 42 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Sep-04-13    SwitchingQuylthulg: "No par" just means nobody's played that game before. 52 isn't great, but if it's your worst GTM ever you've done brilliantly up to now :) Sep-04-13    benjinathan: <When a fireman goes into a building on fire and saves someone, that is heroic. The fireman puts himself at risk. Same can be said for the police officer who gets into a shootout. Those people are saving lives while putting their own at risk, and they are not exaclty paid handsomely to do so.> they should move to Canada. Many firefighters and police offciers earn over 100k a year here, plus their shift work allows them (firefighters at least) to work in other jobs. The average doctor here makes about 225 (after overhead and before taxes). The salaries of professors here varies widely as you might expect. BTW the average salaries for lawyers and engineers is about 88k. Sep-04-13    Fusilli: <benjinathan> Yup. Many people believe that lawyers and doctors make about the same. They are wrong. Physicians are by far the best-paid profession in America. There are lawyers that make a lot of money, of course, but on average they don't stand a chance compared to doctors. Sep-04-13    Fusilli: <Switch> Oh, that's what "no par" is? Good to know! I thought it meant I didn't make it to the average or something. It's quite a tricky, difficult game, that one. Sep-04-13    Fusilli: <benjinathan> Part II: On the other hand, I suspect the average debt at the end of school is considerably higher for physicians than for lawyers. Will check to see if I find data later... Sep-04-13    benjinathan: The data for lawyers is badly skewed though by the type of law (criminal, for example is largely low paying), and by the existence of not so good lawyers who hang out a shingle and try to make a go of it by accepting any client that comes through the door. Most good lawyers earn way more than the average doctor. Sep-05-13    benjinathan: Plus, lawyers earn more as they progress in their careers as they are able to increase their billing rate. Here, a doctor earns the same fee for service on the day they start as the day they retire. So young lawyers also skew the average salary comparison. Sep-05-13    Fusilli: Good points. It does make sense that the data for lawyers' income will have a larger spread than the data for physicians' income (whose specialties also greatly influence their income, by the way.) I guess doctors get paid well right away. Lawyers seem to need more time to make a name, earn reputation, etc. Sep-07-13    Tabanus: Hi <Fusilli> if you have any idea how to find the round dates for Game Collection: Buenos Aires 1979 I would be happy. Bent Larsen's Danish tournament book mentions that there were daily reports in the newspaper Clarín, but how to get access to those here from Norway I have no idea. My goal is to put Buenos Aires 1979 into the Tournament Index. Sep-07-13    Fusilli: <Tabanus> Great tournament! So, you do not mean the games by round but the actual round dates, correct? (As in round 1, April 17 and so on?) It is true that Clarin published the games every day. It was actually the Clarin tournament... the newspaper sponsored it, prompted by Miguel Najdorf. There were several Clarin GM tournaments. The best ones were the early ones. Sep-07-13    Fusilli: WE ARE NOW FOLLOWING Korchnoi vs Petrosian, 1974. YOU ARE PLAYING THE ROLE OF KORCHNOI. Your score: 71 (par = 55) Sep-08-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> Yes, the actual round dates. The round numbers and (their) games are known from Larsen's and Miles' tournament books. The tournament was ca. 26 Nov. - 24 Dec. 1979. Sep-10-13    Fusilli: Hi <Tabanus>... I posted something on your forum. Notice that the tournament must have finished much earlier than you suspect. Sep-13-13    Fusilli: WE ARE NOW FOLLOWING Korchnoi vs Karpov, 1974. YOU ARE PLAYING THE ROLE OF KORCHNOI. Your score: 36 (par = 20) Nice :) Sep-18-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> Thank you again for the Najdorf blogspot link! Because of it I have now all the games with dates in Game Collection: Buenos Aires (Clarin) 1980. I made these observations: 1) No play on Sundays. 2) No tournament book. At least I can't find any. 3) There seems to be little information in the Clarin link about the tournament, who was the tournament leader, where the venue was, special beauty prizes, etc.. Plus I can't read that blurred Spanish. I could nominate Buenos Aires (Clarin) 1980 already now, but the introduction is pityful. For Game Collection: Buenos Aires (Clarin) 1979 I have ordered Miles' tournament book, hoping to find round dates there. There is also a tournament book (?) in Spanish: http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar... but how to find it (or even who wrote it) I have no idea yet. Sep-19-13    Tabanus: <I have ordered Miles' tournament book, hoping to find round dates there.> I have it now. No dates :( But I have ordered library loan of Los Magistrales de Clarin I-II! Sep-19-13    Fusilli: <Tabanus> Awesome! The 1980 tournament was more fun than the 1979 tournament. In the 1979 tournament, basically all the world stars except Larsen and Miles arrived with the idea of beating the weaker local players (Rubinetti, Tempone, Franco) and drawing everyone else. The 1980 tournament was much more bloody. Sep-19-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> I hope the library in Netherlands will lend me the Los Magistrales de Clarin! I now have the Konex 1979 book, it has all the dates too. Sep-20-13    Fusilli: Konex 1979 was one of those tournaments boycotted by the Soviets because Korchnoi was invited. Sep-21-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> Thanks, I added that to the intro of Game Collection: Buenos Aires (Konex) 1979. I'm ready to nominate but 4 games have the wrong Bernat and must be fixed first. Here's your chance to add or delete something. I found no picture. By the way, is it Renato Sanguineti with only one t? Sep-21-13    Fusilli: <Tabanus> Yes, the Spanish name Renato is with only one t. If you mean his last name, both Sanguineti and Sanguinetti exist and they are more or less equally popular. Did you mean that? By the way, the best Sanguinetti was Raul Sanguineti, not Renato. Sep-21-13    Fusilli: <Tabanus> BTW, what is this nomination you are talking about? Sep-21-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> Oops, I meant Sanguineti. I seached for Sanguinetti first (that's the name in the tournament book) and could not find him. The nomination is something that takes place in the Biographer Bistro. After I nominate a collection (only CG editors can do that) it ends up here: Game Collection Voting and now it needs 5 AYE's (only CG editors can vote) to end up as a CG tournament in the Tournament Index. Sep-21-13    Fusilli: <Tabanus> I see Bernat's name was fixed in three games, with the game vs. Quinteros pending. Maybe CG is working on it right now. Sep-21-13    Tabanus: <Fusilli> Funny, I just sent correction slip for that game! I overlooked it last time (probably, I sent only 3 correction slips). Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 42 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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