ICA Week 9 Teaneck Chess Camp Report
So this was the last week, and just like last year it just didn’t come soon enough. As much fun as we may have throughout the weeks, it just doesn’t beat the lack of frustration that comes along with NOT shouting at the top of our lungs from nine in the morning till three (or sometimes five) p.m, day after day, after yet another day.
Michelle Kvetnoy had the best notation prize, while Phillip Lee, again being forced by Slava to play simul games won that prize almost by default.
The Friday blitz/bughouse winners were the “Big Mouths,” who were captained by Nastya Klevak, and included Alexis Kvetnoy, Michelle Kvetnoy, and Danik Stern. The team came from behind in the very last round to win by a mere half point.
Best students in each group were Danik Stern in Kenny’s group, Nastasia in Hana’s group, Mathew Goldgirsh in Frank’s group, Alex Chichalski in Nathan’s group, Alexis Kvetnoy in Izmail’s group, and Ravi in Slava’s group.
The best athletes in each age group were (from oldest to youngest): Shiho Namakura, Phillip Lee, Alex Belov, James Belov, and Raymond Chichalski.
The dodgeball winner was defensive specialist Alex Belov, while the soccer winner was Mathew Goldgirsh.
The relay race winners were Daniel Klevak, Nick Belov, and Ula Goldstein simply because nobody else wanted to participate in the competition so it was not held, though prizes were awarded to those three individuals.
Kento Namakura won for healthy lunch, while Charli Coward got the “iron woman” prize for being at the camp for nine weeks straight.
We also had two new awards entitled, “Best Slava Parody” Competition, which was by Ronit Malde (though Slava thought Ula should have won, the coaches/judges deemed Ronit’s act best), and the “hand shadow puppet” competition which was won by Lily Del-Pilar for her bunny/dog.
Thus ends our camp experience. Thank you to all who attended.
We had fewer people during the last week so that narrowed down the number of tournament sections to three. In the first section Christian Lee was the sole winner in a group of only five kids. In section two, Emmett Wieting took Boris Spassky’s famous King’s Gambit victory over David Bronstein to heart, and sacrificed a rook, knight, and pawn to set up an eerily similar queen-bishop battery checkmate in the decisive game over Daniel Klevak, previously beating out seven other players to win first place. All three Belov brothers, Nick, Alex, and James tied for second place. In section three Ronit Malde won first in a last ditch come from behind victory over second place finisher Alexis Kvetnoy in the last game in their section. Alexis led by half a point and had a chance for a draw after an exchange of rooks which she did consider but chose not to implement. Ula Goldstein took third.
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