ICA Scholastic Chess Camp Teaneck Location Week 8 Report: Latte The Dog Who Is a Chess Coach?

What is even better than having a dog sitting in front of a board playing chess?

Why a dog with a chess camp t-shirt on that says “coach” sitting in front of a board playing chess!

If Alex Katz did indeed text Diana the picture (and you can access it via hyperlink on our website as you should) this wonderful animal is named Latte and belongs to Talia, and Ilan Katz (as well as their parents).  He visited us during week eight and giving him the mantle of coach and putting a shirt on him only seemed natural.

We had four tournament sections this week with Aaron and Isak tying for first in section four, Charli taking home the first place prize for section three, Lily (she needed James Belov to lose in the last round to catch him) Del Pilar winning for section two, and Ilan Katz beating out Grant, Sophie, and Dillon in section one.

Unsurprisingly, in the study groups Aaron (section four winner) was the best in Alex’s group, while Lily (section two winner) was the best in Slava’s group (she got eight of the fifteen variations in the famous 1859 Sam Lloyd mate in two puzzle which propelled her to victory over James, and Ben), Abi in Zoya’s group, Jonathan in Izmail’s group, and Meyer in Solomon’s group.

The winner for both the simul, and the blitz tournament was Ilan Katz.

The blitz/bughouse team tournament winners were “The Amazing (Slava read it as “Annoying”) Chess Team,” of Grant (captain) Ben, Jeremy, and Abi.

For problem solving Jonathan Marbe won (Solomon thought he was especially deserving since he completed seven pages of homework).

In the sports groups it was (from youngest to oldest) Sofia, Dillon, James, and Ilan.

The relay race winning team was the “Undefeatable Lightning Unicorns” led by Meyer, with teammates Grant, Dillon, Kaylie, and Isak.

For dodgeball Daniel Marbe came from behind winning the Street Fighter dodgeball special game (the premise is you get dodgeball points for shouting “Hadouken” and throwing the ball like Ken Masters from the video game.)