2020 Camp Week 6 Report

Week 6 at the ICA virtual summer camp was another fun week filled with excitement, learning and competition. Morning lessons continue to build pattern recognition skills, and to introduce and connect new strategic ideas using a combination of tactics puzzle solving and game analyses. A range of games were studied including games played by campers in the afternoon tournament, simuls and practice games, as well high-level games played by coaches and world class grandmasters.

Campers in Coach Alexander’s group progressed from learning what constitutes a checkmate to solving increasingly complicated mating puzzles. In Coach Sean’s group, Mark showcased a great demonstration of an intermediate move – or a Zwischenzug – he played in a game after the class

Theatre class continued to be a lot of fun. Group 1 created a newscast, and included short stories written by Ankush and adapted to a newscast formula for ICA News, as well as a weather report by George. Group 2 performed a short play called “The New Inventor’s Club.” The class worked on character and scene analysis and explored applying different emotional states to the characters to find where they “live” and what works best for the scene. The actors continued to enjoy the improv games where they had the opportunity to let loose, be silly, and laugh.

In Art Class this week, campers learned about the history of a specific art movement, which allowed for an interactive
 
recently studied this tactic in more depth. Mike continued to impress with his discussion of the movement with their peers and coach, and for
 
sharp tactical skills and Joshua showed great psychological intuition in how he handled several time scrambles, but it was ultimately Ankush who claimed the best-in-group prize, bringing a focused attention to each analyzed game, and demonstrating his own impressive tactical abilities.

Given how well Ankush performed in class, it did not surprise his coach that Ankush won his section of the tournament as well.  As Coach Slava once noted, it is amazing how often the most focused camper in the morning group wins their tournament section! After drawing Stefan, a tournament winner of previous weeks, Ankush went on to win each of his remaining games with great precision. Stefan won his remaining games as well and the two faced each other in a tiebreaker, which Ankush ultimately won. The tournament games were great opportunities to practice new ideas and useful learning tools in lessons as campers strove to understand where mistakes occurred and how improvements could be made. There were tough battles in each section but Alex and Aditi both won section 2 and section 3 respectively with perfect scores!

Theatre class continued to be a lot of fun. Group 1 created a newscast, and included short stories written by Ankush and adapted to a newscast formula for ICA News, as well as a weather report by George. Group 2 performed a short play called “The New Inventor’s Club.” The class worked on character and scene analysis and explored applying different emotional states to the characters to find where they “live” and what works best for the scene. The actors continued to enjoy the improv games where they had the opportunity to let loose, be silly, and laugh.

In Art Class this week, campers learned about the history of a specific art movement, which allowed for an interactive
 
discussion of the movement with their peers and coach, and for the campers to make their own drawings in the same style. This approach showcased the strengths of campers who were drawn to a more conceptual approach to learning art as well as the more artistically inclined campers. The class covered Pointillism, Op Art, Motion Photography, and Surrealism. Campers were rewarded for their efforts with the opportunity to use Tate Kids Paint and Skribbl.io where they were able to express themselves creatively and build confidence by drawing different prompts in front of others.

The ICA coaches continue to be impressed by the enthusiasm and skills of our talented campers. Looking forward to more un and learning next week.