Master Camp: Week 2 Report
Six students participated in week # 2 of Master Camp, and all were of about the same chess strength. This was confirmed by the fact that the lowest rated student won the tournament. Six also turned out to be an optimal number of participants for a round-robin tournament.
No complaints about weather this week: we were able to complete the sports program without any interruptions.
The Blitz tournament (one of the nominations of our camp) was held at the same pace - 3 rounds per day and, served as a break between the tense chess lessons.
In the main tournament, quite unexpectedly, Gabriel secured 1st place a single round before the last one! He was last in the start list, but as it turned out, the rating does not always reflect the true strength of a player. Except for the game against Emre, he played the rest at a consistently high level and deservedly won the 1st place trophy. Ilan performed at his level but with a greater commitment on his part, he could have done better! All the remaining participants played below their skill level. The possessor of the highest rating – Justin (also the youngest student this week) played a game worthy of his skill level only on the very last day. The rest of the time he was in a relaxed state, which was clearly demonstrated in the problem solving competition, where he solved only one position in 5 days. Despite the fact that last year he was one of the strongest in this category.
Daniel, could not get rid of the time trouble syndrome that often doesn’t let him bring his game to a logical conclusion. Nikita probably tried too hard which made him too nervous and his games were therefore very uneven: great chunks of his games included many blunders. But his attitude towards chess gives hope for future success. Emre while a smart boy, was not quite serious enough.
BLITZ proved to be very interesting, and from the very start appeared to split into two groups: the leaders (Justin, Ilan, Nikita and Emre) and the outsiders (Daniel, Gabriel), who cannot quite cope with the lack of time allotted in BLITZ. After a bitter fight, Nikita won 1st place (only 1 point ahead of his pursuers). Nikita also excelled in the problem solving competition without experiencing any serious competition.
Daniel became the best athlete of this week showing a very multifaceted level of training and conditioning.
See everyone in week three!
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