ICA summer 2012 Master Camp Week 5

Eight students started in week #5 of Master Camp. Very young Josh Lerman made his debut. For Josh this week was a serious challenge, since the work load in Master Camp is much higher than the one in his previous Day Camp.  But on the first day he created a sensation by beating Gilad, the champion of the previous week. It should be noted that Monday is a special day. Most of the unexpected results fall on it. This is due to the fact that children are not stable and after a weekend favorites sometimes cannot put themselves together and play below their level. In the future, Josh was unable to build on this success, and he lost all the other games, although in several of them he had a chance.  Brandon dropped out from the camp (and therefore from the tournament) after losing in the first round. Brandon is a very capable player, but still too young and he probably just did not have the strength. The number of participants was reduced to 7 and therefore, each participant who was free from the game, was engaged in a lesson with Sergei (working on the opening preparation). Sam won the tournament. And I must say it was well deserved! He played a very stable game, with virtually no mistakes. In addition, he has a very good opening repertoire, which allows him to get an advantage early in the game. Only once, in the game against Gilad, he got worse position, but confidently coped with the defense and was able to pull a draw. After earning 4.5 points out of 5, he not only won the tournament, but also added about 100 rating points! Ahron came second (for the second time!) Sid came 3^rd ahead of Gilad for whom this week was not very successful.

Gilad bounced back in the sport: he won 1^st place far ahead of all competitors. This week, we brought back volleyball over the net, as in the past years. Everyone liked the “novelty”, even small Josh was at the same levels as others, showing some nice throws of the ball. But it was hard for him to fight on equal terms with other students who were significantly superior physically.

Two other types of program: Blitz Tournament and Problem Solving went in a close race between the Ahron and Gilad. During the Blitz (14 rounds) Gilad until the last round was advancing on the heels of Ahron, but was never able to overtake him. Even harder fight took place in Problem Solving: it was necessary to arrange additional competition, since both scored the same number of points. After all on the last minute of the camp Ahron snatched the Victory!

A few words about the other participants. Alan and Sid are about the same level and are united by the same problem - time trouble. Once they get rid of this problem, the number of gross errors in the game will drop down and the results will grow, since they are already playing well. It was not easy for Don to compete with other participants: he was able to win against the ones who are weaker, but lost to the ones who are stronger. But sometimes he can show an interesting idea, or a combination. In the blitz his results were much better.