User Profile: Fusilli

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Fusilli
Member since Aug-09-04 · Last seen Dec-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.)

>> Click here to see Fusilli's game collections.

   Fusilli has kibitzed 6317 times to chessgames [more...]

   Dec-14-25 Fusilli chessforum

Fusilli: Well, after almost two years, I played a tourney yesterday, and I got shellacked, losing 20 rating points. Four games, G45 w/5 sec increments. I won the first two, lost the next two. Got increasingly tired. My game got worse due to fatigue. My two defeats were to players I beat ...

   Dec-13-25 Lenderman vs C Yip, 2017

Fusilli: Great game by Lenderman, showing the true value of the minor pieces in this setup when black has no prospects on the king side.

   Dec-12-25 A DeCord vs M Sana, 2023

Fusilli: 36...? [DIAGRAM] I thought this would make a nice puzzle, but I just checked and the computer says that, in addition to the move in the game, black also draws with 36...Kh7. 37.Bxe6 concedes perpetual, and if 37.d7 Rd6! = [DIAGRAM]

   Dec-09-25 N Theodorou vs G Jones, 2025

Fusilli: <number 23> I just read your profile blurb. I totally identify with this! <My specialty is getting into trouble out of the opening because I don't prepare well, then hoodwinking points out of players through a variety of creative and fortunate swindles.>

   Dec-09-25 G Garcia Gonzalez vs Velimirovic, 1982

Fusilli: Position after 55...Qc4 [DIAGRAM] The black queen is annoying, but white can't push her away easily. If 56.Rb4 Qd3 repeats the position. And obviously, 56. R or Qc3 runs into Ne2+. 56.Kh2! And it turns out that 56...Nd3 doesn't win material. White gets to trade queens and loses a ...

   Dec-09-25 Botvinnik vs Tal, 1961

Fusilli: Another nice positional squeeze in this line is L Christiansen vs G Garcia Gonzalez, 1982 .

   Dec-08-25 Murray Marble

Fusilli: Murray Marble, 1908 Mate in 3 [DIAGRAM] When you give up, see the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCU... (Or ask your engine, of course)

   Dec-07-25 J Friedman vs Gulko, 1993

Fusilli: This is a big <oops!> of a game.

   Dec-06-25 J Cuenca Jimenez vs F Oro, 2025

Fusilli: What an interesting positional game. Black's bishop looks bad, but white has his own pawn structure weakness, and Faustino maneuvered admirably.

   Dec-06-25 Faustino Oro

Fusilli: I usually don't care to cheer for any GM in particular, but I second my fellow Argentinian <Augalv>!

indicates a reply to the comment.

My Facerook Wall

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 95 OF 114 · Later Kibitzing>
Jun-05-24		Fusilli: <OhioChessFan: I found the perpetual, but probably would have lost on time. You have had some very puzzle-like positions lately.> Against Kf2, Nh1+ just didn't cross my mind. With that one, black wins, actually. Had I handled the white pieces, I would have blundered playing Kf2 (in blitz anyway). True about puzzle positions, but in part they happen because I am playing way more blitz games than I should. And then when I reach those positions, I often have seconds left. I play with 2-second increments, but still...

Jun-05-24		Fusilli: <perf> <No chance of making Philadelphia>. Sounds like a maybe yes to the senior open!? It's a cool tournament. I played it twice and did decently. You usually have 2-5 GMs. My only losses the two times I played were against GMs (Benjamin and Kraai).

Jun-05-24		OhioChessFan: I didn't try Kf2, although I sort of knew White had to accept the draw. Definitely would have lost on time if I'd tried to work that out.

Jun-05-24		OhioChessFan: Re: pinched nerves, I had a couple bouts, and alternating a heating pad with ice packs helped more than anything else. I suppose that is an individual thing and you never know which suggested therapy will be best for you.

Jun-05-24		Fusilli: <OCF> Yeah, the ice packs have helped me, within even a few minutes. Maybe that should confirm there is a pinched nerve. The problem is that, being near the bottom of my spine, it's in an area weakened by MS (though I do plenty of exercise)... which makes me wonder if it will ever go completely away. BTW, are you active in tournament play at all? Have you considered the Senior Open? (July 12-14, near Chicago).

Jun-06-24		OhioChessFan: Not active. I was away far too long to regain my skills.

Jun-07-24		Fusilli: <OCF> Understandable. One gets rusty. I stopped tournament play completely (and in fact, stopped paying any attention to chess at all) between ages 24 (still in Argentina) and 35 (end of grad school in the US). When I resumed playing, it turned out that I played at more or less the same level as 11 years earlier. Go figure. But I doubt that'd be the case now. If I stopped now and resumed at 67, I suppose I'd be cannon fodder. I am declining at a slow, steady pace, which is normal.

Jun-08-24		Fusilli: I just realized Carlos Paglilla died a few years ago. In the mortality department, Argentine players born before 1960 show a case of GMs vastly outliving IMs. Argentina has four living IMs born before 1960: Carlos Bielicki (84), Miguel Bernat (66), Fernando Braga (65, who moved to Italy), and Jorge Gomez Baillo (65). Argentina also has four living GMs born before 1960: Oscar Panno (89), Miguel Quinteros (76), Carlos Garcia Palermo (70), and Daniel Hugo Campora (66). Campora and Garcia Palermo moved to Spain and Italy, but played the ascending parts of their careers representing Argentina. That's a tie, but the list of Argentine IMs born between 1940 and 1959 who have died includes Jorge Rubinetti (at 71), Sergio Carlos Giardelli (at 60), Luis Marcos Bronstein (at 67), Juan Carlos Hase (at 73), Jorge Szmetan (at 65), and Carlos Paglilla (at 67), if I am not forgetting anyone. The list of Argentine GMs born after Panno and before 1960 who have died is... zero. Although Gerardo Barbero, born in 1961, died at 39. The comparison would be more impressive if I bracketed the births between Panno's and Campora's. This would remove three of the four living IMs (Bernat was born in the same year as Campora, but later). And I would have to add the three IMs born in the 1930s but after Panno: Samuel Schweber (who died at 80), Raimundo Garcia (at 84), and Jaime Emma (at 66). The count would then be: GMs 4-0 (living vs dead), IMs 1-9. I have noted this because all these were the masters of my youth growing up in Argentina, and I have noticed how one after another, the IMs keep going and the GMs stay. I could even add that most of the gone Argentine GMs (against, except for Barbero) lived long lives. Miguel Najdorf died at 87, Hector Rossetto at 86, Carlos Guimard at 85, Erich Eliskases (split career between Austria/Germany and Argentina) at 83. Sanguineti and Pilnik died before age 70 though. (OK, I got tired of linking... a lot of typing already!)

Jun-10-24		perfidious: Chicago is doubtful; at the end of the month, I will see how I feel after playing poker for over two weeks straight. As to regaining my form at the board, 23 years away tells the story.

Jun-18-24		Fusilli: Blitz on chess.com. I am white. White to play. click for larger view

Jun-18-24		chancho: 1.Nxg7! Kxg7 2.Qxf6+! Kxf6 3.Nxd5+ Ke6 4.f5#

Jun-18-24		Fusilli: <chancho> Indeed! Unfortunately, I didn't see Qxf6+. I was fixed on my original idea, which also mates. The game continuation was: 1.Nxg7 Kxg7 2.Nxd5 Bxd5 3.Qxf6+ Kf8 4.Qg7+ Ke7 5.Bf6+ Ke6 6.f5 mate. Funny I calculated all that correctly but didn't consider the more straightforward QxN+

Jun-28-24		Fusilli: Blitz on chess.com White (me) to play. click for larger view

Jun-28-24		OhioChessFan: Nice tactical shot, not so easy in blitz.

Jun-28-24		Fusilli: <OCF> I've been playing pretty terribly lately, but this one I saw. Well, I had kept the idea in mind once that knight made it to b4 unsupported, so it wasn't out of the blue, but still... I have been missing huge things.

Jul-14-24		Fusilli: Nice blitz on chess.com. I am white. click for larger view 20.Ng5! Bxd5 21.Qxh7+ Kf8 22.cxd5 click for larger view 22...Qxe5 (best is Nxe5, and white ends up a piece up. Do you see it?) 23.d6 click for larger view Now the engine says that best for black is 23...Qxd6. That says it all, doesn't it? The game ended: 23...Nf6 24.Qh8+ Ng8 25.Nh7+ Ke8 26.Bb5+ 1-0

Jul-17-24		FSR: <Fusilli> My condolences to you and your wife.

Jul-18-24		Fusilli: <FSR> Thank you.

Jul-24-24		Fusilli: Trash talk on chess.com: My opponent: In your profile photo you look like a psycho. Me: Trust the photo. My profile photo: https://www.chess.com/member/realfu...

Jul-24-24		saffuna: So the name Sana is a deception.

Jul-24-24		Fusilli: <saffuna> Exactly.

Jul-29-24		Fusilli: Today I played a lot of blitz, and the result was: +2 =1 -12 Happy Sunday, everybody.

Jul-29-24		Fusilli: Note to self on aging and blitz. My blitz rating on chess.com is 2023 right now. I have never been below 2000 since I joined the website, I believe. I am a tactics and calculation-inclined player, but that doesn't mean I am fast. I was always slow. But I have never reached 2200 in 2024, I think. The first year such a thing happens. Blitz is frivolous, and it isn't even good training. But it is fun and I play it to keep my mind sharp, not to get better at chess. I suspect this is real decline. I am 57 after all, and I am no Korchnoi! Patterns I have noticed: Cognitive: a) I blunder more often. Sometimes brutally. b) I miss too many opportunities because I tend to zero in one feature of the position and forget to look at the whole board. c) Some basic instincts (re: king safety or seeking active counterplay) are failing me. Physical: d) Sometimes I simply get slow contemplating a position, as if I had much more time than I do. e) I am a bit sluggish simply moving the mouse. f) MS is affecting my right hand, which was not bad before, but now I have found myself (on occasion) struggling to control the mouse to deposit the piece where I want it, especially when I am down to seconds. There was a game recently when I had to make a move to secure the draw by repetition with seconds left on the clock and my hand shook so much that I almost lost on time. I managed to make the move with a second left. (My opponent must have thought I was trolling him!) Fun fact: This doesn't happen with my left hand, but I am a righty! g) Sometimes I play blitz on the chess.com app. But an app is no country for old men. It requires finger dexterity that I don't have. What to do? First, stop using the app. In fact, I am uninstalling it from my phone. And second, I will increase my ratio of time playing <with> chess (studying) over playing chess (blitzing).

Aug-19-24		Fusilli: Two tournaments coming up in Nashville! * From Monday, 8/26 to Sunday, 9/1: Third Nashville Summer Classic - FIDE championship. I believe you must have elo FIDE to play. It's 9 rounds, one game a day from M to F, then two games each weekend day. (I'm going to play and I am going to take byes on rds 2, 4, and 9.) For $$ and other info see: https://nashvillechess.org/content.... * From Friday, 8/30 to Sunday, 9/1: Third Nashville Summer Classic - Weekend Swiss. 5 rounds, also FIDE rated. For $$ and other info see: https://nashvillechess.org/content....

Aug-20-24		OhioChessFan: Let's test your evaluation technique. I just meant to play 9...Be 7 but instead finger slipped 9...Ke7. click for larger view The engine says -.25 after Be7. What's your guess after Ke7?

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