It’s Week 2 at Teaneck Summer Camp. School’s out everywhere and camp is in full swing… mostly. Mother Nature had other plans and deluged us with rain on Monday and Tuesday. Our outdoor plans were initially scrapped, but by Wednesday the Sun was back out and fun in the park resumed.
This is where it gets fun. As the heat and humidity rose, the ice cream trucks that park outside our building looked more and more appealing. Alec, Bowen, Ben, and Yujeong successfully begged an ice cream truck driver to give them free ice cream. At our suggestion they wrote thank-you letters to the driver. And on Thursday they brought money instead of asking for free ice cream. This led to an amusing moment when the ice cream machine overflowed Bowen’s cone with extra soft-serve ice cream. He consumed it while grimacing from brain freeze and complaining that it was melting all over his hands. Oh, the problems of youth.
The warm weather allowed us to enjoy at least three days of sports. Circle of Doom and Dodgeball continue to be popular, and Yujeong was declared to be the champion dodgeball player of the week. Students were also awarded a “best in sports” award based on various age levels, with enthusiasm and sportsmanship being treated equally with skill. Those awards went to Yeshaya, Yuejong, Thomas, and Maxim. There was also a relay race on Friday, with Team Pink Fluffy Unicorns being declared the winners. PFU consisted of Geula, Anny, Yujeong, and Ethan.
The morning chess lessons were filled with intensive study this week. Each coach chose their best student based on any number of criteria including participation, behavior, desire to learn. Coach Slava’s award went to Anny, Sophie and Yaakov’s award went to Ethan, Andrew’s award went to Ben, and Ivette’s award went to Lucas.
We have away two awards for chess puzzles. Yeshaya won for the advanced students, and Ben won for the beginner/intermediate students.
Our afternoon tournament this week was split into two sections – two rated and one unrated. Rated section 1 led to a tie between Yujeong and Anny. Yujeong was the favorite to win but suffered an upset from Maxim on Thursday. Anny also had three wins during the week but lost to Yujeong on Tuesday. With two players ending the week 3-1, we opted for a 30-minute unrated playoff game between the two winners. After an epic game Yujeong pulled off his second win against Anny for the week clinching him the first place win.
Rated section 2 was equally exciting, as #4 seed Eliyahu took an early lead on Tuesday and never surrendered it. He ultimately went 4-0 during the week by trouncing anyone unlucky enough to face him across the board. Rihaan did something similar in the unrated section by entering a tie for first on Tuesday and beating his competitor on Wednesday. He turned back a challenge on Thursday that threatened to pull him down into a four-way tie for first, ending his week at the camp 4-0.
We also held two additional tournaments during the week. On Monday we held a “it’s raining outside” blitz tournament. Those that wanted to participate were placed into groups of six during which they played a blitz (5-minute per player) chess game against each other member of their group. The higher rated group ended with an undefeated streak for #1 seed Yujeong. Group 2 ended with a 4.5 – 0.5 point victory for Eliyahu, with Yeshaya achieving the only draw against him.
The other tournament was a combination blitz and bughouse tournament which came to a two-way tie between Team Guy & Guela and Team Ben & Bowen with 4.5 out of 6.0 points.
The art student awards went to Guela & Basil. The best presentation about a tv show award went to Guela. The Funny Hat award went to Luka, and the Funny Shirt award went to Guy.
Thanks to everyone who came to camp this week. The entire staff enjoyed working with all of you and look forward to teaching and entertaining you again.
In the afternoon everyone played in a tournament. Students were split into two groups. The older and more advanced students played in a rated tournament designed to replicate the formality of a larger event. The younger and newer students played in an unrated tournament designed to help them learn the basics of tournament play such as writing notation; etiquette, sportsmanship, and behavior, problem solving, use of the chess clock, and more. This week’s tournament winners were Josh and Cristiano (rated section) and Leonard and Elan (unrated section).
Our art teacher, Larisa, awarded Maya and Ethan W our Artist awards for constant and enthusiastic participation in our art program. Our Bughouse tournament winners were the team of Jacob and Leonard. Michael and Elan were the runners-up. The Best Notation award was awarded to Cristiano.
All in all, the week was a ton of fun. We’re glad everyone was a part of the fun, and we hope to see all of you again in the future.
Visitors: 364