Scholastic Chess Camp Week 8 Teaneck Report: Girl Power!
Week 8 was one of the few times in the history of our summer camp that a girl won every single tournament section. Lily Del Pilar won section one, Elizabeth Tatishev won section two, Miya Shelton won section three, and little Sharvanya Moola (this was Sharvanya’s seventh and final week) won section four. Great job Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paradoxically (in that usually the girls win for student while the boys win the tournament) it was the boys winning all of the best student awards. Dillon Shelton was the best in Solomon’s group (Dillon also won for problem solving and the simul for defeating Solomon), David Liu was the best in Ivette’s, Mathew Koretsky was the best in Slava’s (Mathew won for memorizing the game Lasker-Thomas), Daniel Paley was the best in Justin’s (though to be fair Justin thought all of his kids deserved the prize so we didn’t give it to ones who would win for other categories), and Keith Shi was the best in Melanie’s.
Lucia Koretsky had the best chess notation, while Jonathan Kaplan won the themed practice game event (M: Albin Countergambit-Slava,T: Reti Opening-Solomon, W: Benko Gambit-Justin ,Th: Spanish Game, Breyer-Zaitsev Variation-Melanie, Ivette. Why so complicated Melanie and Ivette? Why so complicated Melanie and Ivette?)
The winners for the blitz/bughouse team event were ironically “The Best Team” (that is their actual team name) and included Elizabeth (who did a great job as Captain), Bryan Ding, Daniel Paley, Nathan Neufeld, and Jonathan Kaplan.
The sports group winners were David Liu for the oldest group, Mathew Koretsky for 2004-2005, Jerry Du for 2006-2007, Nathan Neufeld for 2008, and Keith Shi for 2009.
Kaylie Shelton ruled the dodgeball courts on the strength of same great “Hat-trick” catches of the ball in her hat (that got an automatic 4 points per catch).
The relay race winners were the “Chess Hot Dogs” who were led by Josh T, and included Andrew, Lucas, Jerry, and Kenneth Shi.
The art contest winner was Naama Bonsu, with Rafi Kaplan winning the prize for the “Secret Victory Dance in a Circle of Doom” contest (to celebrate Rafi showed off the moves that won that one), and Austin Chen winning for best lunch at the Allergy table.
To round things out Robert Belson won for being the best at “entertaining himself.”
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