Exciting Election Week: Dexter Wins 2024 Camp Presidency! By Seth Gluck
This week we held a presidential election! We had six candidates who all gave short speeches about what they promise to do in the camp. Afterwards the other campers asked them questions which the candidates needed to respond to. On Thursday we held a vote where everyone wrote their vote on a piece of paper and put it in a box. And the winner is…… Dexter! Congratulations to Dexter for winning the vote and becoming president for the 2024 camp president.
This week at camp after sports groups, we played dodgeball every day, with a twist: the kids were split up into two teams, and had to defend all three cones. The team that either eliminates the other players or knocks over the three cones wins. This allows for some crazy comebacks, as if even one player is left standing they can knock down the remaining cones and win. I want to give a shoutout to Michael for an amazing performance at dodgeball: he carried his team to victory on several occasions. Dodgeball was a really fun break from chess, truly separating ICA from other chess camps.
This week featured an exciting Mind Games Tournament hosted by Coach Gary. Each head to head match featured a game of backgammon, Othello, Lionheart (chess combined with Risk), Stratego, and Fourchess (4 person chess). Whoever won 3 games advanced to the next round of the tournament. It was amazing to see the kids' excitement and focus as they learned and played these new mind games. The Final was played on Friday between Yair S. and Michael C. Michael was the underdog coming into the match because Yair had been crushing all competition the entire week. In the Lionheart game, Michael successfully fended off a strong attack against his king, and then, in a bold new strategy, advanced his king to attack Yair's. On Yair's turn, he attacked Michael's king with his own king but failed. On the next turn, Michael won the game. In the post game analysis we discovered that Yair could have attacked Michael's king with his heavy infantry which has a much higher percentage chance of success and likely would have won the game. In the next game, Othello (which incidentally was Michael's first ever time playing the game), Yair started off with the advantage and it seemed like he had it in the bag. However, the tide changed when Michael got a corner and eventually an entire wall which he used to defeat Yair. Then they began the Stratego game, however at that moment Yair's dad arrived in a big rush and Yair had to go home. It was an anticlimactic end to a riveting tournament, and Michael was declared the winner. Congratulations!
This week on Friday morning it was raining outside so we watched a video made from campers last year. The video was about a chess murder mystery in which the white king was murdered by a smothered checkmate. The campers deduced that since the knight is the only piece that can deliver a smothered checkmate, it must be the murderer of the king. It was nice seeing everyone collaborate to figure out this puzzle and we hope to have more of these group efforts in the future!
Afterwards, the campers and coaches received a special announcement from none other than Coach Alan! After a two month long hiatus, “The ICA Show” Livestream Series will return this Tuesday at 7:30! You will not want to miss this episode, as Alan and his co hosts will ‘prep’ live for Alan’s Grand Prix match the following day!
Be sure to tune in using the link below!
Dodgeball Thrills: Michael Leads Team to Victory: by Adam Darack
Coach Gary's Mind Games Tournament: by Yaakov Adatto
Rainy Day Mystery: Campers Solve Chess Murder Puzzle Together: by Jacob Rabinowitz
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