Sudden Death
After thrilling competition in all our events, ranging from chess to age-based sports groups to recently revived football (or soccer, as you guys call it), many of our events ended in a tie. Since a week’s worth of competition was not enough to separate our campers, tiebreaks were needed.
We start on Thursday with our chess tournament, where two players from our top section finished with three out of four points each: Kian Zarineh and Gillian Gao, who both improved tremendously throughout our camp, needed tiebreaks to determine a winner. After consultation with Noreen Davisson and coach Luke Mulvey, it was decided that they would play two blitz games, once with each color.
Game one was a back and forth affair, with Gillian leading at one point. However, neither player was able to break through in an opposite colored bishops’ endgame, meaning the first round ended in a draw.
And so the players switched colors, with Gillian playing as white and Kian as black.
They played at a frantic pace, with Alan struggling to keep up his notation! Kian won a pawn in the middlegame. From there, not only did he simplify, but he got his bishop in a position where it could win two more pawns! Kian then lured Gillian into a false sense of hope when he gave back all three pawns. However, 47. … d5 and we. Bxd5?? meant Gillian’s rook was left hanging! From there, Kian coasted to a win, meaning he won the top section!
The following day, we had to break two ties in our age-based sports group competitions. Twins Kian and Rayan had the same number of points for their age-based sports group, while Leon and Ethan were tied in the oldest group. Therefore, after finishing up Circle of Doom (which was won by Rayan with three wins), I sent the four contestants into the middle with one rule: the last person remaining from each group wins. Leon made sure to take advantage, as he threw me a dead ball, meaning I could not use that ball to eliminate him. I threw that ball at Ethan, meaning Leon took the win! Immediately after, Kian was eliminated, meaning Rayan won his sports group as well!
Finally, I could not decide who to give an award to for the weekly football competition: both Arjun and Nick impressed me. Although Nick scored more goals and was more imposing, Arjun, being one of the youngest and smallest players, was untouchable with the ball at his feet. Therefore, we decided to give both of them awards for their impressive performances!
Alan-Mania
As usual, campers play 3 rounds of circle of doom dodgeball every morning. The game is simple: the coaches will form a circle around the campers, and they will try to get the campers out with balls. Last camper to survive and not get hit is the winner! During the second round on Tuesday, there were a few campers still left. However, as minutes passed, there seemed to be no more campers left inside the circle. Coach Alan Jr asked everyone, “WHO IS STILL IN? RAISE YOUR HAND!” Funny enough, no one raised their hand so there was no winner for the round. It was the first time in ICA history that there was no winner for a round. There were still going to be 3 total rounds, regardless if there were only 2 winners. After the third round, something miraculous happened. There was just enough time to squeeze in another round, so the coaches decided to have a 4th round! Everyone was excited to play another round. This has never happened in ICA history.
Every morning, the campers have morning chess lessons where they learn new openings, tactics and strategies, as well as go over games played by themselves and sometimes by other famous chess players. After their lesson, they have a snack break, followed by a second session of lessons. During the snack break in the downstairs classrooms, the campers had a bit of fun with Coach Alan Sr. They would hide a chess piece anywhere in the room. Then, coach Alan would have to find that piece. He was able to find the piece most of the time! The campers tried hiding the chess piece in places like the microwave, fruit-rollup box, cabinets, etc.
A Lunchbox Fiasco: Macaroni and Cheese with Falafel and Cucumbers By Albert Abzalimov and ChatGPT
Oh, blimey, what do we have here? A pink lunchbox with a mishmash of macaroni and cheese, falafel, and cucumbers? It's like a flavor disaster waiting to happen! The macaroni is swimming in a pool of cheese sauce, drowning any sense of restraint. And those falafel balls? They look like they've been through a battlefield, all crispy on the outside but who knows what's happening inside. As for the cucumbers, they're just there for the sake of it, providing some sort of illusion of healthiness. And what's this with the pink fork? A feeble attempt to distract from the chaotic mess within? Listen, I don't care how visually pleasing it is, this lunchbox should come with a warning label. If you want a real meal, ditch the gimmicks and focus on actual flavor combinations that make sense. This lunchbox is a culinary tragedy, and I'm just lost for words. Just kidding, this lunch was gusto and Gordon Ramsay is just mad cuz bad. .
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