First day at camp. Wake up at 8:15, go eat complimentary breakfast: Waffles. There were a lot of other choices, but it's cool to make waffles. You get the the waffle batter and then put it in the special waffle maker. That's really the only food I got. Drinks? I think it's cranberry. I know it's red, and it's sweet, and either with a little sour, or it's just barely sweet.
Alright, I need to give you a little more detail. There are a lot of Grandmasters: Alex Stripunsky ( International Grandmaster and co-founder), Robert Hess (International Grandmaster), Giorgi Kacheishvili ( International Grandmaster), Teddy Coleman (Fide Master), and André Duvall. André Duvall is very good, but he teaches beginners, and he also plays piano, so at the end the beginner class does a little performance. Not with the piano, though.
Alright, I need to give you a little more detail. There are a lot of Grandmasters: Alex Stripunsky ( International Grandmaster and co-founder), Robert Hess (International Grandmaster), Giorgi Kacheishvili ( International Grandmaster), Teddy Coleman (Fide Master), and André Duvall. André Duvall is very good, but he teaches beginners, and he also plays piano, so at the end the beginner class does a little performance. Not with the piano, though.
Grandmaster is VERY good. Their ratings vary from 2400-2700, and if you compare that to mine, which is about 900, that's a lot. I think Chessmaster is 2200 and Grandmaster is 2400, 2500, or 2600.
We left off early for lunch because we can buy lunch at the school but it's $8, so we bought food. Also they don't have a lot of food per day, like one day they just had 1 small burrito per person. I bought a Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich. Then we got to the school, and we searched for the group I was in. There were 8 groups: Toucan, Ravens, Hawks, Owls, Falcon, Thunderbirds,... and some others, and they aren't in order.
I was in group 6 out of 8: Falcons. They say they put you in groups by judging your potential and your rating, so this group is around 900. The room was in the art room. It was kind of like a regular classroom except 2 rows of those big tables, there were dried paint everywhere, and there was sand on the ground. Our first teacher: Alex Stripunsky. He gave us some interesting puzzles, and then he said something like: "If you find a good plan but there's a problem, don't abandon it. Fix the problem." like if you're about to checkmate but a knight protects it, you just make any move that will attack the knight. I can't really remember any positions. It was time for lunch after that, at 11:30. As I said, Spicy Chicken Deluxe. Then for the afternoon, Giorgi Kacheishvili. There was one position that I did in Huntsville, although I forgot what it's called. I think the main point is that white cannot push a pawn or else black can make perpetual check. Then right before the lesson was over, it was raining. And hailing! But it was small. We left the building with one umbrella, but my mom ran off with it, and I couldn't catch up, so I stayed inside. I had to wait for a while, and I was trying to get my her attention by waving my hand and then doing the traffic motion by going to my side, like just the motion for keep going on a straight road. When the rain went down, I went to the car, and then she said she couldn't turn on the car. She called my dad to get someone to tow our car to the Lexus dealer place. They were 10 miles away, so we had to wait 30 minutes. I decided to play with the water and see where it all went. They all flowed down to this place with dumpsters for a place they're building nearby. It was cool to see the water, but it stunk, so I decided to play with something else: Earthworms! Don't kill them, just get a stick and then prevent them from moving into the grass. They may seem they move slow, but if you pick them up and then drop them, they will wiggle really fast for 1 second. Then they restore to their slowness.
"It's here!" It was one of those that just fit one car, and it was really cool watching him towing the car. He had to push the car at an angle ( because there were a few other cars and the street isn't that wide ), and then hook up the ropes or lines to the wheel or somewhere. He pushed a button and then the strings moved, and it started getting up the truck. The last is he re-positioned it so it's not slanted, and then we drove to the Lexus dealer place. It was 5:40PM, and they close at 6:00PM, so we had to loan a car. Then we went to Taco Bell, went home, ate it, and then did things before we slept.
I was in group 6 out of 8: Falcons. They say they put you in groups by judging your potential and your rating, so this group is around 900. The room was in the art room. It was kind of like a regular classroom except 2 rows of those big tables, there were dried paint everywhere, and there was sand on the ground. Our first teacher: Alex Stripunsky. He gave us some interesting puzzles, and then he said something like: "If you find a good plan but there's a problem, don't abandon it. Fix the problem." like if you're about to checkmate but a knight protects it, you just make any move that will attack the knight. I can't really remember any positions. It was time for lunch after that, at 11:30. As I said, Spicy Chicken Deluxe. Then for the afternoon, Giorgi Kacheishvili. There was one position that I did in Huntsville, although I forgot what it's called. I think the main point is that white cannot push a pawn or else black can make perpetual check. Then right before the lesson was over, it was raining. And hailing! But it was small. We left the building with one umbrella, but my mom ran off with it, and I couldn't catch up, so I stayed inside. I had to wait for a while, and I was trying to get my her attention by waving my hand and then doing the traffic motion by going to my side, like just the motion for keep going on a straight road. When the rain went down, I went to the car, and then she said she couldn't turn on the car. She called my dad to get someone to tow our car to the Lexus dealer place. They were 10 miles away, so we had to wait 30 minutes. I decided to play with the water and see where it all went. They all flowed down to this place with dumpsters for a place they're building nearby. It was cool to see the water, but it stunk, so I decided to play with something else: Earthworms! Don't kill them, just get a stick and then prevent them from moving into the grass. They may seem they move slow, but if you pick them up and then drop them, they will wiggle really fast for 1 second. Then they restore to their slowness.
"It's here!" It was one of those that just fit one car, and it was really cool watching him towing the car. He had to push the car at an angle ( because there were a few other cars and the street isn't that wide ), and then hook up the ropes or lines to the wheel or somewhere. He pushed a button and then the strings moved, and it started getting up the truck. The last is he re-positioned it so it's not slanted, and then we drove to the Lexus dealer place. It was 5:40PM, and they close at 6:00PM, so we had to loan a car. Then we went to Taco Bell, went home, ate it, and then did things before we slept.
Good lessons from IGM Alex Stripunsky and IGM Giorgi Kacheishvili.
ReplyDeleteI learned from your post that you were curious about rain water and worms. At the time I thought you were crazy standing in the heavy rain and storm.
Keep on writing. I enjoy reading your blog as always.
Mom