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 68 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing> Dec-12-21    OhioChessFan: I've always suspected some of the habitual Saturday/Sunday braggarts aren't really solving them. Dec-12-21    Fusilli: <OCF> It makes two of us. Dec-28-21    Penguincw: Dear Fusilli, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Mar-20-22    Fusilli: ** Blitz strategy ** I just played this on a 5-min blitz on chess.com. Black (me) to move: click for larger view I have advantage, but I am down to 35 seconds vs my opponent's 1:15m. And (unbeknownst to my opponent, of course) I am playing without a mouse, using my laptop's pad, which makes me slower. I hit the right note by playing the objectively inferior choice: 44...Bxe4? The idea is that after the pretty much forced continuation: 45.fxe4 hxg3 46.hxg3 Nxe4 47.g4 Nf2: click for larger view ... black will sac the knight on g4, arriving at a 2N vs 3 connected P endgame. It works because the black king is ideally placed to avoid pesky checks. 48.Kxb4 Nxg4 49.Nxg4 f5 click for larger view Hard to play for white. And it paid off... White had to spend a lot of time to avoid losing. White could have played imperfectly but fast, and even with promotion, I would have likely lost on time. But he was probably taken aback by the dramatic change of circumstances. I ended up winning on time when I had one or two seconds left! Mar-23-22    OhioChessFan: Tell me you didn't help pick the new logo! Mar-23-22    OhioChessFan: If I had 2 Knights against 3 Pawns, I'd lose in a hurry. Mar-25-22    Fusilli: <OCF> Which new logo? I don't get it. Mar-25-22    OhioChessFan: Vanderbilt. Boring. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/03/va... Mar-27-22    Fusilli: <OCF> I hadn't noticed this! I don't like it. I didn't see anything wrong with the previous one. Apr-28-22    Fusilli: Little chess break on chess.com. Just played (blitz game). I am black: click for larger view 32...Qf6 33.Nxe4 click for larger view 33...Qxd4!! click for larger view Nice, eh? White played 34.Qc3, I collected the knight... and proceeded to lose on time a couple moves later. <rolling my eyes> May-01-22    OhioChessFan: White should have had the decency to accept your Queen sacrifice. May-01-22    Fusilli: <OCF> lol, unfortunately, he only had his best interest in mind. May-01-22    diceman: <OhioChessFan: White should have had the decency to accept your Queen sacrifice.> Time is an element of blitz play. May-12-22    Fusilli: Just played on chess.com. I am white. White to play. I didn't see how to avoid the perpetual. I played 21.c5 and it was a draw. Do you see how white wins? click for larger view May-13-22    Check It Out: 21.e4? May-13-22    diceman: I would have also played 21.c5. (in blitz) May-14-22    Fusilli: <check it out> 1.e4 meets Qh1+ 2.Ke2 Qxe4+ 3.Kf1 and after Rh8 it looks like white is toast (my first instinct was Qh1+ and perpetual but then I looked again). <diceman> Comforting to see it's not just me! The solution is the pretty difficult to see (in blitz at least) 1.Qe1! Then 1...Qh1+ 2.Ke2 Qh5+ 3.f3 Qh2+ 4.Qf2 and thank God the knight is preventing Rd2+! May-14-22    perfidious: <Fusilli>, those types of retreating moves are very easy for even strong players to overlook--who would seriously consider such a supine-looking idea as Qe1, though here it is indeed clearly winning? May-16-22    Check It Out: It's funny how a solution like that seems so obvious *after* you see it. Nice one. May-17-22    perfidious: <CIO>, don't I know it. May-17-22    Fusilli: <perfidious> Very true. <hms123> used to call them "invisible moves." May-20-22    Fusilli: Here's a nice one, seen on Instagram. click for larger view White to play. The solution may not be too hard to find, but harder is to confirm that nothing else works. It bothers me that the Instagram account I got it from never acknowledges authorship. They post problems without giving credit to the author. Does anyone know who composed this? May-21-22    Stonehenge: It was composed by Reti in 1923. But I think the bishop was on h6. May-23-22    Fusilli: <Stonehenge> Cool, thank you. Yeah, the different location for the bishop would not change anything. May-26-22    Fusilli: Blitz game on chess.com. I am white: click for larger view Black is clearly winning but he responded to the check with 38...Re6, which, believe it or not, is a blunder that concedes the draw. 39.Rxe6+! Kxe6 40.exf3 exf3 41.a4 click for larger view You see it? White's king cannot approach the pawn, but the knight is stuck, and the black king will get stuck stopping the connected, far away, pawns. 41...Kd5 42.a5 Kc6 43.Kd3 click for larger view 43...Kb5 44.Kd2 h6 45.h3 click for larger view Here black played 45...f2, but it's a draw either way. The final position was this, where I ran out of time, making it a draw by insufficient material: click for larger view Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 112) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 68 OF 112 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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