Chess Juggler: Balancing Career, Family and Chess in the Modern World

By James Magner

No Time for Chess? Is that What’s Troubling You, Bunky? Well, have a seat... How does one cope with devoting sufficient time to family and career while occasionally trying to fit in the odd game of chess? Is your schedule getting more crowded and accomplishments less satisfying? Then take a journey with Jim Magner, physician, husband and ... chessplayer. Dr. Jim went through college and medical school, married and raised a family, and still was able to get in some serious chessplaying. It was not always easy or convenient, but he persevered and fulfilled most of his life’s goals, all the while maintaining his sanity and perspective. He is an average (Class C) player who developed a curious, yet often effective way of dealing with opponents who outranked him, sometime by hundreds of rating points. He shares with the reader his methods and madness, with 31 annotated games dotting his autobiographical narrative. These games are entertaining and instructive, and often somewhat unusual as they illustrate how one may prey upon human weaknesses. If you enjoy rooting for the underdog, then this is the little chess book for you! Over the years Dr. Magner also has provided advice about life and career to countless medical students and trainees, and in this heartwarming book, he also shares his tips for success in family, finances and life itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781936490370

James Magner

James Magner, MD is an endocrinologist and scientist who spent years studying the biochemistry and physiology of the pituitary hormone, TSH, and providing medical supervision for several projects within the pharmaceutical industry. He is an avid chess player and an expert poker player who placed twenty-seventh in the World Series of Poker Main Event, Las Vegas, in 2015. Dr. Magner is married and has two adult daughters. This debut collection of fiction is his third book.

Book preview

Chess Juggler

Balancing Career, Family and

Chess in the Modern World

by

James A. Magner, M.D.

2011

Russell Enterprises, Inc.

Milford, CT USA

Chess Juggler

Balancing Career, Family and Chess in the Modern World

by James A. Magner, M.D.

© Copyright 2011

James A. Magner, M.D.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any manner or form whatsoever or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-936490-12-7

Published by:

Russell Enterprises, Inc.

PO Box 3131

Milford, CT 06460 USA

http://www.russell-enterprises.com

[e-mail]

Cover design by Janel Lowrance

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Learning to Become a Tenacious Opponent

Chapter 2 Growing Up in Quincy, Illinois

Chapter 3 Medical School: Stimulating and Exhausting

Chapter 4 A Surprise Girlfriend and Miracle Wife

Chapter 5 Internship and Residency: More Stimulating and More Exhausting

Chapter 6 Fellowship at NIH: A Dream Experience

Chapter 7 Erin: The Miracle Child

Chapter 8 Carly: My California Girl

Chapter 9 The Big Gap

Chapter 10 Picking Up Chess Again

Chapter 11 The Slow Decline and Rise of a USCF Rating

Chapter 12 The Pillsbury Tournament 2003, and Other Challenges

Chapter 13 Trying Harder in a New Year

Chapter 14 Hanging Tough Against Some Hefty Opponents

Chapter 15 A Better Year for Chess: 2006

Chapter 16 A Fine Tournament Performance in 2006

Chapter 17 Winning Against a Few More Tough Guys

Chapter 18 A Higher USCF Rating in 2007

Chapter 19 Plan To Play More Chess Someday By Saving For Retirement

Chapter 20 Ancestors and Grandma Metzger

Chapter 21 More Recent Games

Chapter 22 Closing Thoughts

Appendix A General and Career Advice

Appendix B Recommended Reading List

Index of Games

Index of Openings

To Glenda,

who doesn’t play chess,

but who understands and loves

someone who does.

Introduction

Amid a buzz of quiet conversation in the tournament room, where chessboards were set up on tables in long rows, I slipped into my chair behind the Black pieces. My chess opponent in this first round game, rated about 300 points higher, was a middle-aged man just turning grey at the temples. He was neatly dressed and had a water bottle and granola bar next to his small notebook. We shook hands, I started the clock and he moved his king pawn two squares forward. A wave of relief swept over me since I was hoping for a routine opening in which I could get a good start in what likely would be a difficult game. After I moved my king pawn analogously, he pushed his king’s bishop pawn two squares forward. What? He glanced up to judge my reaction, and I tried to look calm. I had rarely played against this gambit, and I had certainly never played such a game against a strong opponent. I knew that I was going to have to tread very carefully during the next few moves. He clearly was trying to take advantage of his greater chess experience and knowledge, and hoped to blow me out of this game in just the first few moves.

Many readers may have been in a similar tournament situation, yet they still may see this book as a strange offering. It is an account of my own experience with chess, but also of my own busy life, which has been rich and interesting, but which has been so full, and yes, at times, hectic, that I was never able to study chess properly. The schizophrenic structure of a book that is a mix of chess games and autobiography could draw criticism from purists who might want either a book about chess or an autobiography. But this organization perfectly reflects the pressures I felt over the years as I tried to perform well at my studies or job, and devote vital attention to my family, while also trying to study and play chess! This should strike a chord with most serious amateurs, and many might be interested to hear how my mix of activities evolved, and what winning advice I have to offer.

I am not writing this book because I think that I am a great chess player with immortal games to share. In contrast, I think that I am an average local-tournament-grade chess player who manages to scrape out a win here and there even though many other responsibilities in my life have prevented me from undertaking rigorous study of chess. In fact, I want readers to agree with me that other things in life are clearly more important than chess. But we should also agree that it can be fun to have a deceptive playing style that, when employed selectively, can win a tough game now and then. If you enjoy rooting for the underdog, then this is the chess book for you!

My intent in this book is to communicate information and advice of real value to readers. I want to encourage chess players to keep a proper perspective about career and family, but also enjoy chess. I want the casual chess player to accept that it is OK to try to steal a game away from a strong opponent, even if this type of banditry might seem cheap to some. It is important to be tenacious. Although the games recorded in this book will never be classics, most of them were for me a tremendous amount of fun (especially since I am mostly reporting victories). Some of the games were unusual, and my sincere wish is that the typical reader truly will enjoy playing through them – why else would I publish them? In this book I share 31 games that had special significance for me – I suppose that if I had added 29 more games I could have entitled this book My 60 Memorable Games, although that book title has already been used by a fairly good chess player (the informed reader will know that my jest refers to Bobby Fischer).

We all recognize the great chess talent and career of Bobby Fischer, but we also know about his turbulent life and, arguably, his peculiar and unhappy existence. When I worked at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago in the 1980s, I met a young doctor who was a distant relative of the great chess master, Akiba Rubinstein. The doctor confided to me that Mr. Rubinstein was so focused on chess that he ruined all other aspects of his life. Is it really necessary to compromise so much else in one’s life in order to become a chess master, or even just to become respectably good at the game?

I became interested in chess at age 14, and over many years I aspired – sort of – to become a good player. But chess has never been a high priority in my life, and I suggest that, for most readers, chess skill should properly remain secondary to other more vital goals. To show you what I mean, I here list several clusters of related goals that I had in mind (although I did not write them out at that time) when I was a 22 year-old senior at the University of Illinois in Urbana:

1. Study hard in school, get good grades, genuinely learn important material, complete my education, get a meaningful and interesting job in a scientific field with good pay and benefits.

2. Have a career in science or medicine, publish scientific articles, become respected in my chosen field, make a genuine contribution to science and to humanity.

3. Meet girls, fall in love, get married, raise a family.

4. Stay healthy, avoid accidents, eat right, get adequate sleep.

5. Read broadly, travel widely, meet interesting people.

6. Actively participate in my religious community and give appropriate emphasis to spirituality.

7. Save money, live frugally, invest and become financially secure so as to provide for my family, avoid dependence on other people, and be generous to others and to charities.

And somewhere down on my list...

37. Become a better chess player.

So you see what I mean. It is no fun to be interested in chess, play in tournaments, but lose most of the games. During five decades I have purchased roughly forty books about chess, but I have read only about ten of them from start to finish, and chapters here and there in the others. There just was not adequate time for me to meet all my responsibilities and, yes, enjoy other amusements, and also study chess to the degree that I wanted. Also, since childhood I have always needed more sleep, it seemed, than most other people, and this robbed me of late evening hours that my opponents were using to study chess! Some experts now suspect that the need for sleep is in part genetically determined. In 2009 it was reported that a variant of the gene DEC2 present in two women allowed them to feel well even though they consistently slept for only six hours per night. This same gene variant also caused mice and fruit flies to sleep less, supporting its biological importance. One newspaper article more than a decade ago reported that President Bill Clinton slept only four hours nightly for years. I view people like that as having an unfair advantage in life! In any case, I think that this dependence on a good night’s sleep was just another factor working against my chess expertise.

In fact, if a reader has an even busier life than mine, and needs even more sleep than I do, and thinks that he just doesn’t have enough time to read this entire book, then I have added a suggestion for him. In the back is an Index of Games that also indicates the ratings of my opponents. This allows a reader to play through only the games in which I somehow managed to trick, trap, confuse, or just take advantage of my toughest opponents. The ratings of my five top defeated opponents, for example, range from 2014 down to 1771, and there are some interesting games there.

Philip E. Ross published an interesting article entitled The Expert Mind in Scientific American in August, 2006, that summarized some of his work exploring how people become really good at something. Ross studied chess skills as part of his research, and he began to suspect that the mental processes of chess grandmasters are unlike those of amateurs; he believes that this finding may illuminate how expertise develops in other fields as well. In the article, Ross mentions the great expertise of the world champion, José Raúl Capablanca, who first learned chess moves as a small child while watching his father. Years later, in 1909, Capablanca staged an exhibition similar to what many grandmasters have done. Capablanca walked along the inside of a circle of chess boards, glancing at each for two or three seconds before making his move. On the outer rim of the circle, dozens of amateurs pondered their replies until Capablanca made his way back to them. In the end, Capablanca won all 28 simultaneous games. Ross writes, That exhibition was part of a tour in which Capablanca won 168 games in a row. How did he play so well, so quickly? And how far ahead could he calculate under such constraints? ‘I see only one move ahead,’ Capablanca is said to have answered, ‘but it is always the correct one.’

Is the development of expertise in an area, such as skill at playing chess, the result of innate talent or is it a learned skill that even an average person could achieve if enough hours of study and practice were applied? Intuitively, many persons believe that innate talent as well as study and practice are required. Ross quotes the 10,000-hour rule, a hypothesis much discussed in recent years, that states that a bright person who wants to have a skill in some area need only study and practice that skill for 10,000 hours to achieve a very high level of expertise. Let me now do a calculation. Assuming that one has a spouse and family, as well as a job and other responsibilities, one potentially might only be able to study or play chess every Saturday afternoon for four hours at most. That would commit 2,500 Saturdays, or 48 years, before one could have achieved significant expertise in chess if the 10,000-hour rule is valid. This can be a discouraging realization, although it is probable, I suppose, that after only 1,000 hours of practice some people could become reasonably good.

Madness! Spending all that time to get good at chess surely must also be destructive. Charles Krauthammer said as much in the opening paragraph of his article, Joy and Madness at the Board: The Romance of Chess, in The New Republic in July, 1983, quoting H. G. Wells, You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic, clumsy and unreliable – but teach him, inoculate him, with chess! For Wells, chess was not just an addiction; its continuing popularity constituted a kind of heresy. Wells wrote, The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations, the least satisfying of desires... It annihilates a man. Krauthammer humorously speculated that Wells’ ire had been formed at an impressionable age when he had left a rook hanging in an important game, and postulated that Wells had never quite recovered.

In view of other important and sensible commitments in my life, I decided years ago that I needed to follow an accelerated strategy of some kind to become a more successful chess player (defined as winning tournament games). Although I knew that I could never become a chess master, I decided that I was going to win some of those games by sheer determination and trickery, if necessary!

Details of my program will be given in the subsequent chapters, but I summarize the key principles of my overall strategy as follows:

* Gain a reasonable understanding of the basic chess openings, and focus on a half-dozen openings for more careful study.

* Gain insight into important basic chess techniques (such as king and pawn endings, typical mating nets, proper use of rooks, etc.).

* Keep a record of tournament games, and study those games.

* Play over famous games in chess history.

* Get adequate sleep and avoid alcohol the night before a tournament.

* Learn several opening traps, both for Black and White, and be boldfaced enough to actually try them during important games.

* Manage time well during games.

* Be willing during the first few moves of tournament games to make reasonable but somewhat unconventional moves to strive to make the position complicated and to take a skilled opponent out of her preparation.

* Have discipline and remain highly attentive during games to watch for small errors or inaccuracies by opponents.

* Consider carefully when it may be to your advantage to trade off queens and other pieces to take dangerous weapons out of your opponent’s hands.

* Be willing to make a somewhat inferior move at times that sets a pitfall for an opponent, who might then make an important error.

* After a strong opponent falls into a trap or makes an error, realize that this is only Step 1 to achieving the victory. Step 2 is to remain focused to avoid errors yourself as you attempt to trade off material (or acquire comparable advantages) to secure the win.

* After a strong opponent has made a small error, recognize that it still will be necessary to make moves to rattle the opponent further, so one must keep the situation relatively complicated until the small advantage can be properly pressed home.

Accept the fact that you often will lose to a strong opponent in any case, and you are trying a somewhat desperate strategy to win the game. Keep in mind Teddy Roosevelt’s observation, Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Another point to make is that the strategy outlined above might work on human opponents, but it likely would be much less successful against computers. One is counting on the shock value of certain moves, on oversights and miscalculations, or on the overconfidence of a highly rated human opponent who may already be thinking about the next game rather than the game he currently must win against you.

While writing this book, I have analyzed each game using the computer program Fritz version 9 by ChessBase, and I have provided a few annotations based on that powerful engine’s calculations. In many cases, my creative moves were less than fully sound in a purely technical sense, but the beneficial effects of setting those traps, or springing other emotionally impactful maneuvers, were nonetheless often dramatic at the chess board.

It might have been nice to have become a chess master by years of intensive study, but the circumstances of my life did not allow that path. I still enjoy my status as a player with a USCF rating of about 1500 to 1600 who can put up a good fight against a strong opponent. Through the years, a game lost to me probably ruined chances of winning prize money for many very good players. But I somewhat shamefully have to admit that I often took quiet pleasure at tricking a much stronger opponent. After all, the main reason that anyone should play chess is to enjoy the game. I will share many anecdotes and games, and admittedly it has been fun. Lucky for me, all of my superior opponents who lost have accepted their losses rather gracefully, unlike the great Nimzovich, who once leaped up from his chair and swept the chess pieces from the board while shouting, Why must I lose to this idiot?!

Through the years I had viewed myself proudly as a dangerous opponent, but perhaps my actual role was a chess swindler, although I would like to think that I was just trying to be creative and put up a good fight. I had once thought of making the title of this book, Confessions of a Chess Swindler, but that had, perhaps, an overly negative connotation. All of those S’s in confessions of a chess swindler were attractive, however. Pardon my brief digression, but I once was so impressed by the short poem by Ogden Nash about the letter L that I composed a similar poem about the letter S and I actually won a small prize for that poem, so here it is for your enjoyment:

Three S’s

A one s desert is hot and dry.

A two s dessert is cake or pie.

But I would bet a saguaro sherbet

That there’s no such thing

As a three s desssert.

In the end, my editor and I chose a different title. But I will still refer to being a chess swindler sometimes in my remarks, as that is often an appropriate description. In the following chapters I hope both to teach and entertain, to share some good stories, and avoid taking anything too seriously. I had been influenced years ago by Richard Feynman’s very entertaining book, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, so telling personal anecdotes seemed like a reasonable approach to me for my project. My stories certainly pale in comparison with Feynman’s, of course. Over the years I also have had great success using anecdotes as part of my instruction technique for students and trainees. I strongly recommend Feynman’s book, by the way, as well as the other wonderful books that I have listed in an appendix. Perhaps the greatest benefit that my book will have on a reader will be to steer him to purchase and read four or five of the recommended books in that appendix.

Chess is a game, and it can be quite entertaining. You will learn that during my life I have worn many hats. I have been a husband, a father, an endocrinologist, and a Vice President of Clinical Research. I believe that it is important to be tenacious when faced with difficulties in life. And, yes, I also have tried