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ICA Summer Camp 2019: Teaneck Week 8 Report |
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Yet another week of chess camp is in the books, and what an interesting week it was! We had a whopping 32 campers, including 13 new faces. Six-year-old Augustine Ahn took his first step into the chess world by learning the rules and other basics this week, while Leon Berenfeld, a veteran of several past summers, was the most experienced player with a rating of 917. In total, there were six morning chess groups and five tournament sections. In the top group, Sean had a serious class, wherein Jacob Volynsky and Davin Shin were the Best Students. Praneel Kalapathy was the best in Ivette’s group, and Yeshaya Agin beat Sophia Moustiatse in a puzzle-solving tiebreaker on Friday to come out on top in Nikita’s class. Alessandro also had two best students: Lucas Ahn and Kento Giraldo. Finally, David’s top performer was Jacob’s sister Annabelle Volysnsky, and Andrew’s most impressive student was Matthew Horenfeldt. Moving on to the Classical Tournament, Sam Passner won in the open section by pulling off a 400-point upset against Leon in the last round on Thursday to take clear first. Lucas Chen had another impressive tournament performance in section two to put his rating over 600 and earn himself a spot in the open section next week. Boaz Passner won section three in a Friday morning tiebreak against Sammy Berenfeld after both got three points in the regulation rounds. Philip Cho swept section four, while Annabelle and Matthew were co-winners in section 5. For more detailed results, check out the crosstables by section here. Continuing to other afternoon activities, Jacob played Simul almost every day to take that prize despite Leon managing to score the only win of the week against Alessandro on Thursday. Brothers Eliot and Justin Na won the higher and lower sections of Problem Solving by asking for puzzles every day after their tournament games as well as working on them during the mornings and taking some with them for homework. Samhita Kalapathy and Audrey Sneed won the award for Best Notation by writing down their games neatly and accurately even though they are both fairly new to chess. Finally, we had two sections in the Blitz-Bughouse Tournament to cap off the week. James Chen and Lucas Chen (not related) were the winners in the rated group, while Philip and Sophia snuck past Yeshaya and Audrey in their last-round match to win the unrated section by half of a point. Moving on to outdoor activities, we had 6 age-based Sports Groups to split up campers ranging from 6 to 13 years old. From youngest to oldest, the winners were: Soohan Cho, Yeshaya, Sophia, Justin, Isak Dubrow, and James. Isak also easily won the Dodgeball prize with twice as many points as the next competitor. He finally won dodgeball after several strong second place finishes to dodgeball master Charles Jinn earlier in the summer. (Charles will be back next week to try to take his title back). Since Isak was winning so handily, we, at the request of several campers, abandoned the standard campers vs. campers format to play coaches vs. campers! The children, led by Isak, James, and Justin, crushed their teachers 6-2 in games. Meanwhile, Jacob was the most impressive Soccer player of the week. In Relay Races, the winning team was composed of captain Jacob, Eliot, Justin, Annabelle, Augustine, and Shmuel Bassik. Intimidated by James’ athletic ability (or at least his long legs), they called themselves “Chase James,” and they executed this strategy to earn their victory. As far as our other non-chess activities were concerned, we had a lot of Math, a lot of Art, and a little bit of Music as well. Isaac was only at camp one day this week, so there was no winner for music. On the other hand, Mark was present every day, and he chose Philip and Suzanna as the best mathematicians. Aparna’s art was quite popular as usual, and she said that Sara Sneed did the best work this week. Finally, we would like to give our best Birthday wishes to Lucas and Mia Chen! This pair of twins turned 9 on Monday, and as a birthday present, they received a chess clock to share as they both continue to play tournaments and improve their chess skills. Excellent work this week, campers (and coaches)! The end is in sight: only two weeks of camp remain! If you want to continue to improve your chess and math skills over the school year, make sure to sign up for our fall classes in Teaneck or Glen Rock (or both). Make sure you sign up by August 25 to get the early bird discount! |
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