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 59 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-19-17    Fusilli: <WB> Yes, Dr. Saidy played next to me in round 4, when I won. He brought me luck! He looks pretty good at 80. He took two or three byes, wise man. I didn't get to see much of Vegas at all. The tournament schedule hardly allowed it, but I've been to Vegas before and, honestly, I don't like it. (Plus I don't gamble, so that is lost on me.) The hotel/resort/casino where the tournament was played (Westgate) is terrible. They have five or six restaurants, but only 2 open for lunch, and one of them only until 2pm. Getting lunch on Sunday, on a tight schedule, was an ordeal. There was a 45 minute wait for the one restaurant! I had to take taxis to go to another hotel just to get a lousy sandwich and rush back to play. And don't get me started with how overpriced everything is! :) $4 for a Starbucks small coffee?? If I play there again, I'll rent a car. I wasted money on taxis and paying too much for bad food at the hotel. I'll spend a bit more but have much more independence. Aug-09-17    parisattack: Happy Baker’s Dozen <Fusilli>. I hope all is well with you and yours. Aug-09-17    Fusilli: <parisattack: Happy Baker’s Dozen <Fusilli>. I hope all is well with you and yours.> Likewise, my friend! You've been MIA. Nice to see you back! The US Chess Federation gave me a little CG-birthday gift. They just wrote me to let me know I made it to a top-100 list: blitz rating for age 50+. At 2080, I am 91st. :) That only means, of course, that most folks 50 and over don't play blitz! Aug-09-17    parisattack: Congratulations <Fusilli> - That's a real feather in your cap. I was never good at Blitz...of course, I was never very good at Classical, either. :) Take care. Aug-09-17    Fusilli: <parisattack> Thank you. I hope you come back. I always enjoy your posts. Oct-16-17    Knight13: <Fusilli> I know of only two reasons--if what you said about women being relegated to "less" important tasks in STEM is true--that they would do such a thing to female postdocs and assistant scientists. It's because they are afraid that those women might quit to have kids, or may do so in the future and therefore they don't want to put those women in positions of responsibility, spend money and train them, only for them to drop out and have children or otherwise take on a lesser role after spending all the money and resources, therefore "wasting" everyone's time and resources. In short, they are responding to risks based on observable reality, fair or not. 2) Said women just aren't relatively talented. Less capable Women aren't the only ones subject to such treatment. Mediocre men don't get the "more" important positions just because they're men. Never attribute to sexism that which can be adequately explained otherwise. Just had to put a closure on that topic. There, the box is fully closed. Oct-17-17    Fusilli: <K13> <Just had to put a closure on that topic. There, the box is fully closed.> Okay, closed! :) Nov-27-17    Fusilli: R.I.P., Dmitri Hvorostovsky. I saw him as Simon Boccanegra at the Houston Opera about 10 years ago. What a treat that was. Dec-25-17    Penguincw: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year <Fusilli>. Jan-05-18    Fusilli: In three of my about 10 last games on ICC I missed mates in one (in my favor). Have I reached the downhill point of no return?? Jan-05-18    OhioChessFan: The bottom of the hill would be to miss the mate in one in the opponent's favor. Jan-06-18    Fusilli: <OCF> That happens too! They cause different reactions though: if I get mated unexpectedly it's "oops!" or "ouch!" If I miss a mate it's more like "arghh!!!!" On ICC the end of a game is announced with a one-bang bell sound. When you get mated unexpectedly, it can be rattling to suddenly hear "BANG!" (Of course you can turn off that feature, but I like it regardless.) Jan-20-18    Fusilli: Painful loss to Todd Andrews last night in the first round of the city championship final. With 45 seconds left I blundered a complex endgame that was heading for a draw. I slept badly, I'm tired and demoralized, have a headache and a messed up shoulder (HAVE to go to physical therapy now!) and I'm playing again in an hour. But I'm a fighter, so by the time I sit at the board, I'll be ready! (Or at least that's what I'm telling myself!) Jan-21-18    OhioChessFan: I have some thoughts about time trouble caused by the pervasiveness of engine analysis. I'll try to get those thoughts organized and post later. They might have some bearing on the time trouble situation you described. Jan-21-18    Boomie: Back in my tournament days, I had the habit of showing up 30 minutes late. Late Saturday it was announced that the morning game was starting 30 minutes earlier. Unfortunately, I missed the announcement. I showed up just in time to see my flag fall as I was sitting down. My opponent refused to play on so I had to forfeit. Now that's time trouble. Jan-22-18    Fusilli: <OCF> Looking forward to it. <Boomie> Ouch! Jan-22-18    Fusilli: Actually, with Todd I blundered twice. First I blundered the win, then I blundered the draw. Here's how I blundered the win: click for larger view 44...? I played 44...Ra2+ which leads to a draw. Winning was 44...Ra1! It can be seen conceptually that boxing the white king must be the way to go, but white will promote in two moves, and it requires calculation to see that it works. For example: 45.Kc2 Re1 46.g7 Ra2+ 47.Bb2 Re2+ 48.Kc1 Rxb2 (either rook) 49.g8=Q doesn't work. What works is not to take the bishop but threaten mate with 48...Kd3: click for larger view ...which wins a tempo. Now mate is coming. So, white can't play 46.g7. He needs to play 46.Rg2 or even 46.Kb2, and in both cases black at least captures the e3 and the computer says black is winning. Jan-23-18    OhioChessFan: I think when you watch live games, or review games with an engine, it's very easy to forget that your flesh and blood opponents don't see everything like the engine does. I suspect engines have caused people to be reluctant to make speculative sacrifices or enter complex games, for fear that their opponent will just as easily find a refutation as the engines do. Likewise, I think people tend to use more time than is practically expedient, for fear they are missing something that ubiquitous engine/opponent will spot immediately. Jan-23-18    Fusilli: <OCF> That makes a lot of sense to me. If there is something computers have taught us is that there is just so much, but so much, that we don't even consider during a chess game. It surely increases the pressure on analysis, leading to time trouble especially in complex games. Jan-23-18    thegoodanarchist: Surely I cannot be the first person to bring to your attention an episode of the great TV comedy "Seinfeld", which features "Fusilli Jerry". However, in case I am, enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5n... Jan-23-18    Fusilli: <thegoodanarchist> lol, no, you are not, but thanks for the laugh anyway! My next user name will be Festivus! ;) Jan-29-18    chancho: <Fusilli > Hadn't noticed that word before... Did a quick looksee and it's supposed to be gender neutral? https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr... Jan-29-18    Fusilli: <chancho> Big debate going on around it, but so far mostly constrained to academia. It worries me when academics decide that something new should apply to an entire population of millions of people without any consultation with them. I have my reservations and want to write a short essay for the Heterodox Academy website. Yes, it's supposed to be gender-neutral, but I see problems with it. And I think there is a contradiction in taking a word from Spanish and making it an English noun and at the same time say that it is gendered. Nouns in English are not gendered. So, to me, the plural "Latinos", once it is a new English word, was no longer gendered. (And it certainly does not imply all men in Spanish!) The problem is that once they adopted "Latino", then "Latina" naturally followed. And as Latinos are largely bilingual, it became impossible to think of it as non-gendered. Another argument I want to make is that language to classify people can be about sex or can be about gender, but we have to choose. Sex is easier because it's so much easier to see (and there are not so many choices!), and many people prefer to keep their gender identity private. I'm still clarifying ideas in my head... Jan-29-18    Boomie: Another problem with losing all those words that end in 'o' or 'a' is they are perfect for song lyrics or poetry. I mean, what rhymes with 'LatinX'? Frankly, it sounds like the name of a medical supply company. Jan-29-18    Fusilli: <Boomie> Yeah... to me it sounds like a cleaning product (there is Clorox, Folex, Latinx...) or cold medicine (there is Mucinex, Latinx...) Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 59 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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