The fun began today with another round (pun intended) of Circle of Doom. Today's winners were Mayan Aswani, Emma Shevelenko, and Serena Xu, all of whom demonstrated both agility and the good sense to hide behind the bigger kids.
There was a lot of extra excitement going on, as Slava announced in the afternoon there would be a paper airplane contest. In contrast to the normal rules, kids were encouraged to build paper airplanes during snack break and at lunch. The contest was an enthusiastic success with fourteen or so kids opting to join in the fun. Yuki Banno and Steve Yi tied for 3rd place. Leon Shevelenko came in second with his "throw the airplane so hard it can't help but to go a long way even when it hits the ground early on" strategy. And with airplane engineering skills that would make a Boeing engineer proud, Francis Kim came in first place in both heats of the contest.
Of course there were chess lessons, snacktime, and lunch in the midst of this too. There's less I can say on this. Different groups of students focused on different levels of skill-building. And if I peek into their classes it tends to distract the students, so I typically keep my distance. I do know that Coach Eugene gave an enthusiastic "well done!" to Victoria Svidler who maintained a constant focus on her lessons, made insightful comments, asked relevant questions, and showed a level of enthusiasm that we'd all do well to emulate. So Bravo to Victoria for being Eugene's A-1 student today.
Tournament time rolled around and a good time was had by all. Emma Shevelenko dominated the advanced beginner section with a perfect 3-0 score. Matthew Kanounov did almost as well in the beginner section with a 2.5-0.5 score. Kudos to both of them for their games well played.
Then it was time for art, more chess lessons, and to say gooodbye for the day to many of our students. And goodbye for the week to some that are not returning tomorrow. Too many names to list at this point, but know that we've very much enjoyed having you all here. And we look forward to spending tomorrow with those of you sticking around for yet another fun-filled day.
(And a special bravo! to the little kiddies who continue chanting "yes fun!" whenever I tell them "no fun" is permitted at camp.)
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