Summer Camp 2017: Week 2 Teaneck:
“What Do Street Fighter, Star Wars,
Radio Shack & Batman” Have In Common?

For years part of the fun of the ICA chess camp was the cruel, and unusual game of “DODGEBALL” which we made even more fun by adding the twist of music, and special moves that earn points.  The problem has always been the music was difficult to amplify from those so-called smart phones the coaches constantly used.  However, this all changed when Radio Shack went out of business and we were able to purchase, quite cheaply I might add, a portable Bluetooth speaker that handled the problem quite nicely.

This week the dodgeball specials were “Street Fighter” (as Ken’s theme music plays the kids earn points by shouting Hadouken, and throwing the dodgeball like Ken throws his fireball), “Star Wars” (the kids throw the ball over their head while shouting “Luke I am your Father”) and finally “Batman (the kids throw the ball like a batterang while proclaiming in a deep voice that “I’m Batman.”). 

It just feels like this was as entertaining for the campers to play as it was for the campers to watch.

Our tournament winners for the week were Jerry Du in section one (Jerry drew Leon Berenfeld in their third round game with perpetual check, and then beat Leon in the follow up unrated playoff), Robert Yi  in section two (Robert won the playoff against Jonathan Perchuk on forfeit as Jonathan only came for a couple of days), and newcomer Jacob Pollard in section three.

The best students were Jerry Du in Slava’s group (only one to fully memorize the theoretical opening analysis of Stenitz’s win over Dubois, also known as the miniature Knorre vs Chigorin 1874.) Soohan Cho in Orren’s group, Robert Yi, Dongmin Won, and Davin Shin all tied for best students in Ivette’s group , and Aaron Lapsker in Ryan’s group.

Benjamin Lapsker was best in problem solving, while Jerry Du won in simul (all his simul games lasted more than fifty moves as he correctly forced Queen trades in losing positions to drag out the games).

Jerry and Soohan were also the winners of the traditional Friday blitz/bughouse tournament despite the fact that Jerry had last pick.

In the sports competitions Soohan Cho won the youngest group, Kevin Wei won the middle group, and Jerry Du won the oldest group.

The winners of the relay races were team “Fireball,” or Jerry Du, Soohan, and Dongmin.

Davin Shin was our winner for Math, and for Dodgeball

And lastly, Robert Yi was Larisa’s pick for the ART prize.