Scholastic Chess Camp Week #5 Glen Rock Report

 

Week 5 is noteworthy in two ways: first, it’s end marks the midpoint of the camp schedule.  Second, it is on one of the days this week - July 20 – the International Day of Chess is celebrated. Finally, this week in our camp there was a birthday man - Stefan, who on this momentous occasion was (as is tradition) awarded a special prize during Friday\'s Award Ceremony.

During week 5, the camp in Glen Rock was packed, and aside from the Day and Master camps including the elite campers of the GM camp (normally GM camp is held in an entirely different location).

The future grandmasters not only listened to the chess lectures of Grandmasters Stripunsky and Benjamin, but also played various types of sports (morning exercises, tennis, soccer, bowling).

The best students in GM Camp were Daniel Yedidia (Group 1), as well as Ryan Xu and Lucas Foerster-Yialamas (Group 2).

Master Camp managed to beat the record of all previous weeks, with a record total of 11 campers. The best students in their groups were Malina Pavlova (Sergey\'s Master Camp A) and Kovi  Pahmer (Hana\'s Master Camp B). Matthew Lerman took first place in the Master Camp A tournament, and Jonathan Plavnik  won the Master Camp B tournament. Grant Goldman was the winner of the blitz tournament.

Because of the size and age range of both Master and Day camp, they combined for the sports events and the Blitz/Bughouse tournament.  The "masters" capitalized on this and used the opportunity to collect a large portion of the various awarded prizes.

In Sports Groups, Alex Biyanov was the best of those born in or before 2003.  Matthew Lerman topped those born from 2004-2006.  Jonathan Plavnik topped those born in 2007.  Alexander Vern bested his age mates born from 2008-2009 and Matthew Trostin was the top among our youngest campers, born 2010 or later.  In Dodgeball, Grant took the boys’ prize, while Jane Stripunsky was the top girl.  Kovi was the best Soccer Player.

Representatives of Master Camp demonstrated their skills in the team events as well. Grant Goldman and Kovi Pahmer contributed to the victory of the Better Pink Fluffy Unicorns in the Blitz/ BugHouse Tournament. Furthermore, Grant’s contribution came in the form of not only his over the board play but also his clever inclusion of the term “Better” in the name of his blitz/bughouse team. In addition to Grant and Kovi, Michael P. and Gary played for the winning team.

The winning Relay Race team was also a combination of Master and Day campers.  Jane (master camp) captained the team of Ethan Xu (master camp) Anton Badushov, and Debra Boutom.

The remaining awards were divided among representatives of Day Camp.

First place in the Section 3 Tournament was shared by three participants: Anton, Gary and David. And the Section 4 tournament was won by Royina.

There is nothing surprising that the students awarded for being Best in Chess Groups were also those who successfully performed in their tournaments.  They were:

Tanya\'s Group - Anton

Richard\'s Group - David

Alessandro\'s Group - Royina.

Royina also excelled in the Problem Solving Competition, winning the Unrated Section. The strongest in the Rated Section was Debra.  

In the Survival in a Simul Competition the kids fought, not sparing any extra energy or time. As a result,  two - Alexander and Kirill managed to win their games, while Michael P. made a draw. All of them received well-deserved awards in this category.

The Healthy Lunch Award, and not the first time we might add was won by Valerie. The Math Award was shared by Stefan and Anton, while Art Contest Winner became Kai.

We congratulate all our students with the end of another successfully held week in our camp!