Week 4 Fair Lawn and Teaneck combined report

 

During week 4 we welcomed back our triumphant Pan-American champion Aryeh-Lieb Shlionsky Of course our other students were curious and wanted to test their chess skills against the young prodigy.  Despite the fact that Aryeh-Lieb confirmed his elite level of skill by winning the tournament section, blitz tournament, and best student competition, some students were still able to offer stiff resistance both in the classical, as well as blitz chess. For instance, in the most important event which was the classical tournament Max was close to winning, missing the forced combination a few times, and agreeing to a draw in time trouble even while still holding a winning position, and Sophie, who comfortably secured the half point against the eventual tournament winner, and got overall third in the tournament despite having the lowest rating among all competitors.

 

The section two winner was Albert, while Kovi won section three as he pulled away from Matt Centrella on the last day thanks to Kento’s surprise last round win against Mr. Centrella.

 

Finally, Austin celebrated his victory in section four which had the most participants of all sections this week as there were nine players in it.  The second place winner was Aatish, while third was shared by Jane, Gavin, and Anton.

 

The best students in the study groups were:

Tanya’ Group – Albert

Slava’s Group – Kovi (Kovi memorized the assigned chess game which Slava said at the beginning of the week would help any students who wants win the classical tournament as well which is exactly what happened.)

Greg’s Group – Jennifer

David’s Group – Anthony

 

The homework prize as is usually the case was only contested by rated players.  The strongest in said category was Suran.

 

However, in the problem solving competition the number of willing competitors for top honors was much higher.  As a result of the five day battle the winner of the Open section became Kovi, with Aatish in the U900 section, and Anton in the U500.

There was no shortage of willing participants in the Survival in a Simul competition which forced the coaches to add a second coach into the mix.  So at times there were two coaches giving the Simul in order to give all those willing a chance to try their hand at the event. As a result in the Open section the winner was Matt, in the U900-Eric, and in the U500-Phillip.

 

The team tournament was won by the team of Suran, Adam, Anton, and Phillip (time constraints didn’t allow all rounds to be played out or for the teams to pick a name for themselves.)

 

One rainy day of camp forced us to miss sports groups on it but didn’t stop us from choosing the best athletes in each one.  In the master camp the confident winner was Maxwell while in the others it was:

Age Group 1 - Albert;

Age Group 2 – Aatish;

Age Group 3 – Dennis

Age Group 4 – Kovi

Kovi was also the best soccer player while in the Dodgeball event Lily won for the girls, and Grant for the boys.

 

The Relay Races as has usually been the case over the last few years were won by the team with the correct team name of “The Pretty Pink Unicorns,” this time represented by coach David with campers Sophie, Jonathan, Gavin, and Aidan.

The healthiest lunch winner was Jonathan Plavnik while Art Contest Competition was won by Alex with the Music Award conquered by violinist Aatish.

The “Mini Master camp” (students who are signed up till 5 pm but focus more on chess and yet are not rated high enough to be in Sergey’s Master camp) had two winners as Albert and Suran won on tie-breaks.

Together with the regularly scheduled contest and events we also offered our student a non-chess novelty- The Japanese contest (students compile a list of English words that our resident Japanese speaker Kento then translates to Japanese, thereby compiling a list of terms to memorize for all willing competitors.  The next day those who so wish take a test and the highest or even a perfect score wins the prize).   The winner was Phillip with the only perfect, and thereby highest, score.  Kento who helped translate the words got a prize for the contests organization.

Until next week!