Anyone who has attended our Teaneck summer camp for more than a decade knows our head coach, Slava. He’s such an integral part of our program that we lock him in a cell at night to prevent his escape. The powers that be finally granted him a week off, so we’re taking advantage of his absence to increase the fun factor at camp.
On Monday we added a special simultaneous exhibition where Coach Ethan played five of the campers. Three campers were down in ignominious defeat while Yujeong Yeo and Evan Roque (our top two rated campers) emerged victorious. To be fair, Ethan was also trying to do his job of managing the camp at large while he was playing, but his excuses are irrelevant! Yujeong and Evan’s victories are to be remembered by the ages.
Energy levels were high on Tuesday and the kids needed a little extra running-around time, so we kept them going with a long game of dodgeball at lunch. Our weekly winners remain to be seen, but our daily champions were Yujeong Yeo, Haaris Usman, and Eliyahu Krimsky. This turned out to be fortuitous, as it began to rain mid-late afternoon making it difficult to take the kids with late pick-up outside.
On Wednesday and Thursday coaches Yaakov and Isaac worked with several of the late pick-up kids on a music project. They were making a chess-themed video set to Mission Impossible Music. Yujeong Yeo played the keyboard while Geula Kraise-Krimsky provided some of the narration.
Our art award for the week went to Esma Tunali, one of our youngest students. She enjoyed the chess lessons but became doubly happy at our art table. She spent several hours happily making all sorts of creations during the week.
Our sports awards went to a selection of kids of all ages. Winners were selected not only for physical abilities, but also for sportsmanship, participation, and good-natured play. These awards went to Justin Hun, Yujeong Yeo, Elisha Ben-David, and Nuha Usmani.
In addition, we had a dodgeball award, which goes to the overall winner of our many dodgeball and Circle of Doom games. That went to Yujeong Yeo. Our relay race awards went to Team Pink Fluffy Unicorns, made up of Yujeong Yeo, Elan Lerman, Evan Roque, and Nuha Usman.
As always, our coaches also gave our classroom awards to their most dedicated student(s). These students best represent focus, desire to learn, application of their lessons, sportsmanship, and good behavior. Ivette’s award went to Haaris Usman and Jacob Macapinlac. Juno’s award went to Nuha Usmani. Isaac’s award went to Liam Fields. Yaakov’s choice was Esma Tunali, and Ethan selected Yujeong Yeo.
We also continued our tradition of playing an afternoon tournament. Yujeong Yeo and Evan Roque were in an unusual situation – they were significantly stronger players than the next-closest competition. No other students could have come close to beating them. We set them in a match against each other, but with a longer time control (G60 d5) than normal. For four days they faced each other game after game in an epic show-down. Yujeong was ultimately the champion with 3.5 points, with Evan pulling off a draw in the final game to prevent a full blowout. Kudos to both players for such a terrific match.
Four other campers – Eliyahu Krimsky, Justin Han, Geula Krause, and Jacob Macapinlac played a round-robin against each other. After three rounds Eliyahu was the victor with three points. Justin had two, and Geula had one. To make things interesting on Thursday, we set Justin against Eliyahu and Jacob against Geula… with Eliyahu and Geula having to play without a rook. The two underdogs rode the extra piece to victory, although Eliyahu still won the round-robin overall.
Our unrated section was the biggest of the tournament groups. Eleven campers competed for one of three trophies. Some were clear underdogs, but pulled out unexpected draws and wins at times. In the end, Elisha Ben-David and Lucas Macapinlac pulled out second and third places respectively… and Haaris Usman declared victory with a perfect four points.
We also had our usual Friday bughouse-and-blitz chess tournament. Today we ran two sections, one for the more advanced kids and one for beginners. Each section played a double-round robin in which each team faced each other twice. The competition was both friendly and intense, but in the end, there was a clear winner. In the advanced section Evan Roque and Haaris Usman won with 4 points. William Kwak and Elan Lerman did the same in the beginner section.
All in all, it’s been a great week. We miss Slava and look forward to his return next week. In the meantime, we’re pleased to end the week with a final note that a good time was had by all.
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