Fusilli Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Oct-19-25 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 5 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Oct-02-09    Fusilli: <Winking> True. 1.Qxd7 Rxd7 2.Nf6+ Kf8 3.Rxd7, 1-0 since the threat of 4.Bh6# is demolishing. That was the only game that I lost with relative dignity. In my other two losses I blundered badly. In this game I played reasonably well until I got too greedy on the queenside, a strategic miscalculation. Thanks for your kind words for my next tournament! Nov-18-09    Fusilli: Chess boxing! http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/vid/16696... Nov-23-09    Fusilli: From the November 2009 issue of Chess Life: Interesting position from John Fedorowicz v Alex Lenderman, US Open 2009: click for larger view Here White played 85.Na5? and lost after 85...Kd4 86.h5 Bh6 87.Nc6+ Kc3 88.Ne5 Bf4 89.Ng6 Bg5 90.Ne5 Bf4 91.Ng6 Be3 92.Ne5 Bg5 93.Nf3 Bf4 94.Ne1 d2 95.Nf3 Kb2 0-1. As Jonathan L Hilton put it in Chess Life, White could have drawn with 85.Kd2!... his last chance to sacrifice the knight for the draw, since the King cannot be displaced from b1/c2. As of today (11/23/09) the game is not in this database. Nov-26-09    Fusilli: Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! I am writing from Austin, where I came for a tango festival: http://www.fandangodetango.com/1.html. Who said that one hobby is enough? Nov-26-09    zanshin: Happy Thanksgiving to you too <Mariano>. So you're in Austin now - you sure get around ;-) Nov-26-09    Fusilli: <zanshin> Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I do move around! And now I am thinking of playing the North American Open in Vegas after Xmas. Hey, I was wondering what the engines would see in the position I posted a couple days ago (see Fedorowicz v Lenderman below). Based on the precedents, I don't think they'll see the drawing line and probably determine that White is lost. Nov-26-09    Fusilli: My wife just came up with a great name for chessgames.com. She asked me what I was doing and I told her "I'm on my Facebook"... because I don't have a Facebook profile (she does). Then she said, "Ah, yeah, you are on FaceRook!" So, from now on, we'll be calling chessgames.com <Facerook>. Nov-26-09    Albertan: Hi Mariano,thanks for the Thanksgiving Greeting. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.I certainly am thankful to have met you and been able to talk with you! You are a very kind and thoughtful person! Nov-26-09    hms123: <Fusilli> I hope you are dancing the <knight> away. click for larger view Analysis by Stockfish 1.5: 29-ply, dpa 1. (-1.01): 1.Nb8 Bd6 2.Nd7 Ke6 3.Nb6 Bc7 4.Nc4 Kd5 5.h5 Bf4 6.Nd2 Kd4 7.Nb1 Be3 8.Ke1 Bh6 9.Kd1 Kd5 10.Nd2 Bf4 11.Nf3 Ke4 12.Nd2+ Ke3 13.Ke1 Kd4 14.Nb1 Ke4 15.Nd2+ Kf5 16.Kd1 Ke5 2. (-2.90): 1.Na7 Kc5 2.Nc8 Kc6 3.h5 Kb7 4.h6 Kxc8 5.h7 Bg7 6.Kd2 Kd7 7.Kxd3 Bc3 8.Kc4 Kc6 9.h8R Bxh8 10.Kxb4 Bb2 11.Ka4 Kc5 12.b4+ Kb6 13.b5 Kb7 14.Kb3 Bc1 15.Ka4 Kb6 16.Kb4 Bb2 3. (-5.69): 1.Na5 Kd4 2.Nc4 Kc3 3.Kc1 d2+ 4.Nxd2 Bh6 5.h5 Bxd2+ 6.Kb1 Kd4 7.Kc2 Bh6 8.Kb1 Ke4 9.Kc2 Kf5 10.Kd3 Bf8 11.h6 Bxh6 12.Kc2 Bg5 13.Kb1 Bf6 14.Kc1 Ke4 15.Kc2 Bg7 16.Kb1 Bd4 4. (-5.89): 1.Nd8 Be7 2.Nf7 Bxh4 3.Nd6 Kxd6 4.Kd2 Bg5+ 5.Kxd3 Kd5 6.Kc2 Ke5 7.Kd1 Be3 8.Kc2 Ke4 9.Kb1 Bd4 10.Kc1 Kd3 11.Kb1 Kc3 12.Kc1 Be3+ 13.Kb1 Bg5 14.Ka1 Bf4 15.Kb1 Kd3 16.Ka1 Ke4 5. (-5.93): 1.Kd2 Kxc6 2.Kxd3 Kd5 3.h5 Bh6 4.Kc2 Kd4 5.Kb1 Ke4 6.Kc2 Ke3 7.Kb1 Kd3 8.Ka1 Kd2 9.Kb1 Kc3 10.Ka1 Kd3 11.Kb1 Bg5 12.h6 Bxh6 13.Ka1 Be3 14.Kb1 Bf4 15.Ka1 Kd4 16.Kb1 Kd3 Nov-26-09    Albertan: I hope you are having a great time at the Tango festival. Here is a link to a video which shows the Famous Tango dance scene from the film with Rudolph Valentino: THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_sG... Nov-26-09    hms123: <Fusilli> The computer never gets it: click for larger view Analysis by Stockfish 1.5: 30 ply, dpa 1. (-5.89): 6...Ke4 2. (-5.89): 6...Ke5 3. (-5.89): 6...Kd3 4. (-5.77): 6...Kc5 5. (-5.77): 6...Kd5 Nov-26-09    zanshin: Here's a look at the position. Let me know if you want me to slide down any line: click for larger view [-0.35] d=34 1.Nb8 Kd4 2.Nd7 Bg7 3.Nb6 Bh6 4.h5 Be3 5.Nc4 Bf4 6.Nb6 Bh6 7.Na4 (0:15.16) 52685kN Nov-26-09    Fusilli: <hms123> Ha! Sometimes these computers are STOOPID! Thanks for checking, Howard! You love your Stockfish baby, don't you? :) Nov-26-09    Fusilli: <zanshin> I was wondering if the computer would see that it is drawn after White gives away his Knight for the central black pawn. But <hms> already checked. It's similar to other lines we looked at before, where the King is securely cornered against Bishop and pawns and cannot be removed, with the subsequent draw. Nov-26-09    hms123: <Fusilli> One thing I like about the version of Stockfish that I use is that it is a multiprocessing version--so it takes advantage of my quad core computer and runs really fast. Nov-26-09    Fusilli: <Albertan> Thanks for the Valentino you tube link. Here's an example of what modern Argentine Tango looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FO... Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne are among the best tango dancers in the world nowadays. He is a renowned tango personality, quite creative and in some aspects a tango dance revolutionary. Nov-26-09    benjinathan: I see that tou were just in austin. I go once a year, but am always looking for new places to eat etc. Anything catch your fancy? Nov-26-09    Fusilli: <benjinathan> Alas, this is only my second time in Austin and both times I came here for the Thanksgiving weekend tango festival at the Omni Hotel Southpark... which is in a pretty isolated area. I spent (and I am spending) almost all my time inside the hotel. A hard life... get up, breakfast, gym, shower, lunch, nap, coffee, hang out, dinner, evening dance, sleep, repeat for four days. Last time we did venture out for a nice lunch, though. I don't remember the name of the place, but I'll find it out and post it later. It was good. Nov-26-09    benjinathan: Thanks! Have fun! Sad you are so far out of the (Non Tango) action. Although you are fairly close to South Congress. Good luck. Nov-26-09    Albertan: <Fusilli: <Albertan> Thanks for the Valentino you tube link. Here's an example of what modern Argentine Tango looks like:> Your welcome,wow thanks for the video! They sure are talented,coordinated and in synch with each other.If that was me I would be stepping all over her lol. Nov-27-09    WinKing: Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours also! I'm playing in 'Battle of the Brains 3. You should join in <Fusilli>. You can contribute whenever you have the time-no stress.:) They assigned me to team black. It will be nice to get away from computer play for awhile as no computers are allowed. Nov-27-09    benjinathan: NYTimes online has a piece on Austin today. Nov-29-09    Fusilli: I'm back in Nashville. Austin was great. The tango festival ended with an all-night dance (going until 5am) last night. I had a blast. <benjinathan> On Friday we went out to eat and found a great place: a Mediterranean restaurant, Dimassi's: http://www.dimassisbuffet.com. It was exceptionally good. I went with a large group and no-one could find anything substandard. You should try it your next time in Austin! Nov-29-09    Fusilli: <WinKing> I think I prefer to be an observer on the Battle of the Brains match... too many things going on. Nov-30-09    WinKing: <Fusilli: <WinKing> I think I prefer to be an observer on the Battle of the Brains match... too many things going on.> Understandable as I know you are busy with your teaching duties at the University. :) Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 5 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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