Monday, August 3, 2015

Chess Camp 2015

We made J attend a chess camp this summer. At first he was reluctant to go. The summer is for relaxing, right? Watching videos, hanging out with friends, playing games (board games or video games). Hey, wait a second...chess is a board game! We promised him some extra screen time if he would go to the camp, which was during the mornings for one week. He reluctantly agreed.

When I picked him up at noon on the first day, he asked if he could stay the next day till 4 p.m.! He won three of the four games he had played and was learning new stuff. The camp was fun! I talked to the coordinator who said there was plenty of room if we wanted him to stay longer for the rest of the week. I called the Parks and Recreation department and switched J to a full time camper.

On the third day, they learned about notation and practiced by recording a game. J brought his record home, which I am proud to say was a win for him.

J's first recorded game!

Since he attended the camp, J received a cool t-shirt and a very nice chess set of his own which hasn't seen any action yet.

Cool chess swag

By the end of the week, he was doing quite well and the instructor said that he'd probably dominate in competition with other children his age. The camp had children from ages six to fourteen, so he was up against some experienced players (on the last day, I heard one of the kids say, "Another t-shirt?" and the coordinator say, "Well, you did the camp again...") We are going to check out the chess club at school this year and see what happens.

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