2019 Summer Camp Week 10 Teaneck

After 50 summer weekdays, ICA Summer Chess camp has come to a close in our Glen Rock and Teaneck locations. It has been a long summer here at ICA. Since the middle of June, we have had lots of fun and learned lots of chess. We had yet another full week to cap off the summer.

                In morning chess study groups, we had six different coaches and seven winners. RAYMOND WANG was the best in the top group with coach Ivette, while EZRA LANDA was the most studious in Abe’s group. PEARL CHON and NATHAN NEUFELD were co-winners in Darren’s group, and YESHAYA AGIN gave the best answers in Alessandro’s group. Robert chose ALEX FRANSISCO, and NORAH PARMAR was victorious in Ezra’s class. In the afternoon classical tournament, RAYMOND, who was the highest rated camper this week, won the top section in a playoff on Friday with JAKOB LANDA. DAVIN SHIN got clear first in section two with 3.5 out of four, while YAAKOV MANKOWITZ took first in section three. Siblings PEARL and LEO were co-winners in section four, while ALEX F. had a perfect score in section five.

                In other chess news, we had an interesting Simul Survival Competition this week. The large simuls continued from last week, with two of them drawing more than eight participants. Both Abe and Alessandro took on many boards, and both had strong performances. Remembering his rough attempt last week, Alessandro changed his opening choice from the cautious Queens Gambit to the very aggressive King’s Gambit en route to a positive win rate against 12 participants on Thursday. DAVIN, YAAKOV, LEO, and PORTER CONWAY played on most days and all had at least one win, earning them a prize. ISAK prevailed in Problem Solving, and he and KYLE won in the Blitz-Bughouse Tournament.

                Outside of chess, we had many sports prizes this week. In sports groups, we had six winners. They were, from youngest to oldest, CHRISTOPHER JINN, ALEX XU, KYLE TANG, NATHAN, CHARLES JINN, and ISAK DUBROW. CHARLES wrapped up his summer with a final dodgeball victory. Unsurprisingly, he won this category every week he was here this summer. Meanwhile, ISAK won the Relay Races with his Pink Fluffy Unicorns (KYLE, YESHAYA, and CHRIS).

                In the afternoon, we had many students excited to do math, art, and music. Consequently, we had two sections for math and music. Among half-day campers, SAM OBADIAH and SAMAR HIRAWAT were the best in art and PEARL was the best in math. In the full-day section, JAYDEN PARMAR and LEV LIBEN made the best art pieces, while YESHAYA and NORAH were the best mathematicians. Meanwhile, ALEX F. was the most enthusiastic musician.

                At the end of ten weeks, there are several people we must recognize for their hard work during the summer. Improving in chess is almost impossible without dedication from the student, and there was quite a lot of improvement this summer. Special recognition goes to LUCAS and MIA CHEN, who have been with us for all ten weeks. Thanks also to all our coaches throughout the summer, and especially to Alessandro and Ivette, both of whom just finished working their tenth week out of ten! If you liked out summer program, make sure to sign up for our fall classes in chess and math. Thank you all for a great summer, and we hope to see you next year!