Fair Lawn Master Camp Report Week # 6

Week # 6 almost brought the biggest sensation to Master Camp this summer. Two new players: experienced Haik and quite unknown newcomer – Thomas (with rating of 800), joined Ahron, Gilad and Brian. And by chance the fate of the first place in main tournament was decided in the last round between two of them! In the end Haik won, but he was on the verge of defeat. Thomas’s performance in the tournament was the main sensation this week! He started playing and working on chess quite recently and almost did not play any tournaments. But his rating is much lower than his strength: he won quite confidently against Brian, and was able to use Gilad’s mistakes and beat him as well. Only Ahron and Haik (in mentioned above last round) were able to beat him. At the end Haik (tournament’s favorite by rating) won all of his games and the tournament. The class of his playing was above all and only the nerves ‘forced’ him to give some chances to the opponents. Ahron played according to his strength and took second place. This week proved to be unsuccessful for Gilad who scored only one point. Brian lost all of his games, but it should be noted that the level of his playing was very good. Just at some point of the game he loses concentration and makes blunders.

Haik also won Blitz. He started slowly getting only 1 point out of three, but then was able to win the rest of his games! Ahron was second, Gilad – third. Apparently all Gilad’s  efforts this week were focused on the problem solving competition, where for the first time this Summer he was able to finish first.

Thomas was able to shine in sports as well, only the fact that he missed first day of the competition forced him to loose first place to Gilad, but Thomas was able to break Alan’s record in high jump!