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 50 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-04-15    Fusilli: <Mating Net> Yes! I missed the whole thing. I was in San Diego for a conference and not checking news from Argentina... 2-0 Boca!! May-11-15    Pulo y Gata: Hi, Fussili. I'm no Argentinian, but I love Latin American literature, which, to my mind, is full of great writers, minds. Thanks for the interest, and, my, you're a pretty strong chesser! Cheers! May-12-15    Fusilli: Blitz game on ICC. I am white. click for larger view 17.Rxf6 (white is winning with a variety of moves, including this one, which I found most forceful.) 17...gxf6 18. Bd5! Qa6 19.Bd4 click for larger view 19...Ne5 20.Rf1 Nd7 21.Qh6 (mate is coming in various possible forms) c5 click for larger view 22.Ng5! (good looking, no?) He chose to be mated with 22...fxg5 23.Qg7#. May-14-15    WannaBe: <Fusilli> Usually for me wired mouse or not, they are jumpy, I'd be doing one thing and next thing you know my mouse is half-way across my screen. See if anything here helps: http://community.spiceworks.com/top... What kind of table surface do you have? May-14-15    Fusilli: <WB> No mouse pad. I run the mouse on an oilcloth tablecloth, which is pretty smooth. A couple of people on the website you linked to mention "Enhance Pointer Precision"... sould I look for that? But there is another one that says "Optical or Laser? - A laser is more precise and can cause more jitter..." If there is a trade off between precision and jitter, then I don't know if I want more precision. As long as I point anywhere on the intended square, the move will come out right. I am more concerned about maneuverability... losing precious seconds just trying to 1) hold on to the piece I grabbed (the mouse might drop it before I release my finger), and 2) reaching the intended square quickly. Problem #1 has cost me many games! May-14-15    WannaBe: Touch screen PC?! Or try an iPad and see if using fingers improves the situation? May-15-15    Fusilli: <WB> I do have a touch-screen laptop (a Sony Vaio). I'll try it and report back! May-15-15    Fusilli: Update: I tried the touch screen feature for ICC blitz. Pros: more precision, accidents almost eliminated. Cons: I seem to be a tad slower. I think this is because I had to considerably enlarge the size of the board. May-19-15    Fusilli: ICC 3-minute game. Fusilli v someone. click for larger view White is in a desperate position. Except for the fact that he has a winning move. May-19-15    chancho: Qxf7+ wins. May-19-15    Fusilli: <chancho> Ain't that nice! May-19-15    Mating Net: I love it <Fusilli> A tremendous mate, thanks for the alert. Only a trained tactician could pull it off. Jun-04-15    Fusilli: I'm going to Europe! And I'm going to play this tournament in San Sebastian: https://info64.org/xxv-open-interna... As of the moment of this posting, I am No. 16 by FIDE rating. My friend Mariano Grynszpan from Buenos Aires is No. 9. I see that Diego Del Rey is also listed. He's originally from Argentina. We used to attend the same chess club in Buenos Aires when we were kids. It'll be great to see Mariano. He is traveling with wife and kid. I'll be with my girlfriend in Paris and Seville, but then she comes back and I stay to play chess. I'm so excited! Never played in Europe before. Jun-04-15    WannaBe: <... stay to play chess.> I gotta use that one next I travel. Good luck! Maybe you can hook up with User: meloncio he's around Seville. Get a hair-cut, too. I hear the barber of Seville's quite good. Jun-05-15    Fusilli: <WB> Haha... yes, one of my favorite operas. As it happens, I saw it last year in Nashville. Jun-16-15    Fusilli: So, I was on a transatlantic flight and the screen in front of my seat had a games menu, and chess within it. So, I played a game and trounced the computer in 20 moves. Then I discovered there was an option to make it "hard", as opposed to "medium", which was what I played the first time. So, I choose that option, and what does it mean? That the computer takes A LOT MORE TIME to make the SAME MOVES! What the heck?? It did change its move at move 11 or 12, when it was already a pawn down in a hopeless position... and the change wasn't precisely an improvement. Jun-16-15    crawfb5: Progress report: I have a draft introduction for Game Collection: 0 Prague 1946. If you have any corrections or additions to suggest, let me know. We know CG is missing games; <zanzibar> submitted them and I'll finish the games section after CG processes them. Once everything is in good shape it can be nominated to become a formal tournament page. Jun-30-15    Fusilli: Hello from San Sebastian, my chess friends. Anybody there? I'm playing the Open Internacional de Gros. Crosstable here: https://info64.org/xxv-open-interna.... So far, I have 4 in 5, so I am doing pretty well. All my results were logical though. My four wins were mostly against players in the 1800s of Elo FIDE (mine is 2132), and my one loss was to a GM (Roberto Cifuentes Parada). Today I play another GM: Alfonso Romero Holmes. Wish me luck! Jun-30-15    moronovich: Good luck <Fussili> ! And well done so far ! Jun-30-15    Fusilli: Thanks, <moronovich>! I see you have a pretty high rating. Are you still active? I think I'll never stop... I love playing! Jun-30-15    moronovich: No <Fusilli> I am not active,but I do some coaching and I am glad you enjoy the game-that is the most important ! Jul-01-15    Fusilli: I drew the GM! Today I play IM Diego Del Rey. He is also an expat from Argentina. I knew him when we were teens (or I was 20 or so and he was a teen... I'm four years his senior). He's been living in Spain for over 20 years. It was nice to find him here. These are the current standings: https://info64.org/xxv-open-interna... Jul-01-15    moronovich: Wauw ! What a fine result-it must be deeply satisfying for you... And I wish you all the best for todays game! Jul-01-15    chancho: <Fusilli> Oye che, sigue dandole palizas a la oposicion! :-) Jul-01-15    Fusilli: <chancho> <moronovich> Thank you! Preparing for today's game right now. Man, my theory is so rusty... Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 50 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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