Coach’s Perspective: Fair Lawn Week 7

                As the summer continues, I am back with yet more tales from the wonderful world of chess camp. First, I have a story about two of our youngest campers. Alex W. and Surbhi are both six years old. They are also the camp’s only “couple.” Throughout the week they would walk to the park where we do sports hand in hand, like they were out on a date. Here you can see them walking together under a soccer net. What amazes me is that two quiet little chess players could become friends like this in the span of just a few weeks. It does, however, make sense that two young children smart enough to be good at chess at such a young age would find each other interesting people.

            The aforementioned pair of students became immediate friends, but not everybody in camp could get along so well. After a rushed lunch on Friday, we prepared to play our team blitz-bughouse tournament. When we announced teams, some were happy and some were indifferent. Avital, however, was not thrilled with her chosen teammate David. Avital had considered him to be annoying all week. For example, she did not like that he had been talking really loudly during lunch (which made it hard to hear the movie that was playing. Consequently, she was not happy to hear that they would have to play together in the most exciting chess event of the week.  Amazingly, though, they managed to quickly put their difference aside. In the first round, despite not communicating too much, they managed to sweep both blitz games and the bughouse round. After this dominant round, they became more friendly. By the last round, they were frantically checking the pairing sheet together to see how they might win the event. Sadly, this was not to be as the powerful duo of Jonathans Z. and P.  easily won the section. However, it does seem that that they won each other’s respect. I am amazed how quickly they were able to put aside their differences and end the week in a great way.