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 65 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Dec-31-19    chancho: Thanks <Fusilli>. I hope that all goes exceedingly well for you in the upcoming New Year. It's always a difficult thing dealing with the loss of a loved one. I lost a brother 19 years ago, so I can relate to what you are experiencing. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. My deepest condolences. Dec-31-19    juan31: <Señor Sana> : igualmente le deseo lo mejor del siguiente año. :) Dec-31-19    WinKing: Happy New Year to you also <Fusilli>! :) Jan-03-20    wordfunph: <Fusilli: You have a great new year, my friend!> Prof, greetings from Philippines! Jan-03-20    keypusher: Happy New Year, and good luck OTB in 2020! Jan-09-20    OhioChessFan: ** Coming Soon! ** Tata Steel 2020 Moves Prediction Contest. Conducted by the Legendary <chessmoron> and hosted at Graceland, home of Elvis. Click on Elvis for details. Jan-19-20    Thief: <Fusilli> How many publications do you need in high impact score journals in order to become a Full Professor? Jan-23-20    Thief: <Fusilli> Not gonna tell me, huh? All, right, I'll find out for myself by breaking into your house and see what I can dig up (and also steal some stuff). Okay, just took out my lockpick set here, gonna pick your door now. Don't call the cops, yet. Looks like a standard 5-pin lock. Shouldn't be that difficult. Click on 1, nothing on 2, 3 is binding, 4 is binding, feels like a spool here, a click out of 5, maybe a false set. Back to the beginning, counter rotation.... Jan-24-20    Check It Out: <Thief> Be careful, <Fusilli> has magic powers and can hex you in the ethereal plane. Be warned! Jan-24-20    Thief: <Check It Out> Uh oh... Jan-28-20    Fusilli: <Thief> I see you are a break-in pro! No problem, my neighbor's two German shepherds will alert me someone is right outside my house, and then I'll be ready for you... As for requirements for full professorship, it's not a black & white thing. It varies and depends on a lot of things. For example, a solo-authored article in one of the two top journals in the discipline (American Sociological Review or American Journal of Sociology) is easily worth three pubs (or more?!) in less impactful journals. Take impact factors with a grain of salt though. Discipline-specific journals have fewer readers than interdisciplinary journals and then tend to have lower impact factors. And the relative popularity of disciplines varies for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the work. Jan-28-20    Thief: <Fusilli> You actually answered! Even if they're not black and white, publishing a billion pieces in fourth-tier journals alone won't make you a full professor. I think you'll need some publicans in top journals (high impact or not) if you wanna become a full professor at a place like Vanderbilt. How important is getting a lot of grant money for promotion to full professor in your field? Say, if you can somehow get like ten million dollars but never published anything except in low-tier journals, would they still make you a full professor? Feb-03-20    Thief: Here we go again lol... Feb-12-20    Fusilli: <Thief> In my field, grant money won't substitute for publications. I doubt it does in any field. Conversely, people with poor publication records normally don't get grants, because grant agencies want to give money to the most productive people in the first place. What's the point of funding something that won't see the light of day? Feb-21-20    Boomie: <Fusilli> Honza is posting some of his games. He is one of our best analysts. I thought you might like to go over his games. Honza Cervenka chessforum (kibitz #524) Feb-26-20    Fusilli: Thanks <Boomie>, I've been swamped. Next time I can go over games, I'll take a look! Mar-03-20    Boomie: I hope you are OK after those dreadful storms that hit Nashville. Mar-03-20    Fusilli: <Boomie> Thanks for checking in! I am ok, and so is my house. I live in East Nashville, about a mile north of the path of the massive tornado that ripped through the neighborhood. I had to wait it out in the basement. The damage is huge. Mar-03-20    Fusilli: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9RdAND... Mar-03-20    Boomie: <Fusilli> So happy to hear that you all dodged that bullet. Twisters in early March. Go figure. No good way to warn people at midnight. Mar-03-20    Fusilli: I was still up. I'm on spring break and I was catching up with grading until about midnight. So, I was in the process of going to bed when I got the alerts from the NWS on my phone. They come with a strong beep. I suppose they override silent phones...? May-12-20    Fusilli: Today I went over all of Karpov's games in the 1976 USSR championship (USSR Championship (1976)/Anatoly Karpov), which he won. Time definitely well invested. May-19-20    Fusilli: Just played on chess.com RealFusilli v Oscar BOT (Yes, the username Fusilli was taken!!) click for larger view White to play. As I reran the game with Stockfish, I was floored to be shown this: 64.Rxd7+! (I didn't play this) Kxd7 65.Rg3! click for larger view The computer says black should continue 65...Ra1 66.Ke5 Kc7 67.b5 etc. and black's marginal advantage evaporates. Of course, the question is what happens if black plays: 65...Rxg3 66.Kxg3 Now all black moves lead to the same outcome. The most challenging move to respond to is 66...g5: click for larger view 67.a4 -- of course, and only move. Any king move would be premature. 67...d4 click for larger view 68.Kf3! -- only move again! click for larger view 68...c5 (the last try) 69.bxc5 (only move) Kc6 click for larger view Now either 70.a5 or 70.Ke4 and it's a draw. Wow. Who would have guessed that in a position with all four rooks on the board and a pawn under, the way for white to draw was to kill all the rooks! I played a different move 64 and lost in 83. Jun-05-20    Nisjesram: <fusilli><Those who agree please respond “I second Fusilli.”> I second < fusilli> In past , i blew whistle on racist posts made in rogoff forum by <diceman> and his far right buddies. Nothing happened , most of the time , so i gave up. . Jun-05-20    Fusilli: <Nisjesram> Thanks for dropping by my forum. I usually don't look at the Kenneth Rogoff page. It's too aggravating and a waste of time. If I post, my goal is not to convince the far right crazies, but to have some healthy exchange with those who are reasonable (a much larger number). Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 65 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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