Fair Lawn Master Camp Report Week # 1

Five students participated in the first week of Master Camp: experienced Gilad Drillich and Brandon Huang, youngsters Ahron Shlionsky and Zachary Lyandres, and the visitor from Moscow, Daniel Manevich (the senior in the group).             Master Camp program is very intense and the work load is much higher than normal that children receive during the year.

After half an hour of morning exercises students start ‘chess workout’, that  includes tactical exercises and exercises on the calculation of variations. At ten in the morning tournament begins with time control G/60 + 5 sec. If the game is over before allocated time, the players are assigned the special position to play out. Subject of the positions was changing all the time: the attack on the king, the realization of benefits, the endgame, the tactical complications. Playtime ends at 12:30. After snack, the children went to the park to engage in the general physical preparation. It included: Running short and long-distance, jumps long and high, push-ups, soccer, volleyball. After that everyone is heading back for lunch. From 2:30 PM to 3 PM independent studies: students are analyzing their games trying to identify mistakes. From 3 PM the group lesson with coach. Sergey is not only looking over the games, but also over the analysis, helping the kids in all of the aspects of chess game: openings, middle game, and end game. At the end of the day (as relaxation after hard work) 1-2 games of Blitz.

And now the Results:

In main tournament even though the level of participants was the same, Brandon Huang was the strongest and won the tournament (USCF rating report) with 4.5 points out of 5. The youngest Ahron Shlionsky came second. Ahron also won ‘problem solving competition’ award. Gilad Drillich won BLITZ and Sports.