Boulder County Chess School

 

Founded in August 2007, BCCS offers private lessons, classes, fund raisers (family chess knights) and chess camps throughout Boulder County.

 

Chess Camps 2010

K-12

June 7-11

July 19-23 

 

Full and half day options available:

9:00 to 4:00 full day 

9:00 to 12:00 half day mornings

1:00 to 4:00 half day afternoons

 

To be held at a new location:

http://bouldercountryday.org/PROGRAMS_SUMMER_PROGRAMS.php

 

Boulder Country Day School

4820 Nautilus Court

Boulder, CO (in Gunbarrel)

 

 

Note, this new location is about a mile from our previous site.

 

Cost

            $300/wk full day (late registration $330)

            $175/wk half day (late registration $195)

 

June Camp early registration postmarked by May 17th

July Camp early registration postmarked by June 21st

 

To request registration materials, or for further information, email: pjjsz@idcomm.com

 

Instructors:

 

(More will be added as registration increases.)

Randy Reynolds has been teaching chess to children for about 7 years.  He has recently had success teaching at his children's elementary school, where the club there just won 1st place team for the K-3 division at the 2010 State Scholastic Chess Tournament.  He is active in tournament play and has achieved a peak rating of 1737.  He has been editor of the Colorado State quarterly chess magazine for 3 years and currently serves as secretary of the Colorado State Chess Association.

 

Josh Romero teaches chess in the St. Vrain school district, and also at BCCS workshops and camps. He has a rating of over 2000, which is quite impressive as he first learned chess only six years ago! Among his tournament accomplishments is a Boulder event with a 9-0 score. His most memorable victory as part of that event was over National Master Brian Wall.

 

Mitesh Shridhar is a Marshall Scholar and a recent graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder. A tournament player for close to ten years, he has achieved a peak USCF rating of 2087 and has won both the Denver Open and the Loveland Open. Mitesh was an assistant TD for the 2009 Colorado State Scholastic Championship and a former instructor of the Boulder County Chess School. He has also had experience teaching at the college level for the past three years. Mitesh's most memorable game was a draw against women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk at the 2009 US Open Blitz Tournament.

 

Paul Szeligowski is an experienced chess teacher, on an individual, class and camp level. Among his private students are two Colorado Scholastic State Champions. He is author of numerous chess articles, including the original ones on the system now known as the Colorado Defense. He has achieved the Expert USCF title and a peak rating of 2060.

 

About the Camps

This is the third year for our summer chess program. The first camp this year will be held in June (7-11), and the second in July (19-23). Both camps are 5 days, Monday through Friday and will be held at the Boulder Country Day School in Gunbarrel. Campers can choose either full day or half-day options. Children are divided into groups (beginner, intermediate, advanced) based upon age and ability. Depending upon turnout, multiple levels within each group may be created, and group sizes may vary between levels. In addition to the teachers and director, there will also be assistant(s) to facilitate in the classrooms and also during breaks. The desired student / staff ratio will be about 8:1.  

 

There is a core curriculum, which will be covered in both camps (such as thinking techniques), however the examples used will be different in each camp. Beyond that core curriculum, topics will vary for each group from camp to camp. The exception to that is the beginners group, where the material covered will be essentially the same. Children who completed the beginners group in June could move up to an advanced beginners group or intermediate group in July. The emphasis is very much on understanding and not memorization. For instance, in the opening phase of the game, control of the center, development and king safety are each important goals. Students will be shown why that is the case and not just to memorize it as a fact.

 

For the beginners group, the morning and afternoon sessions of each day will cover/review the same material (different examples), with the emphasis being on practice to insure a good grasp of what was discussed. For intermediate and advanced groups, topics covered will be different in the morning and afternoon sessions. For all groups there will be a repeating structure of a discussion topic and game play. For the beginners group the cycle time will be shorter than for the more advanced groups; they will also have more short breaks.

 

All campers will be able to play in an on going unrated multi round chess tournament within their group (two rounds each day). The beginners group will not start their tournament until Wednesday, as there will be a certain minimum proficiency desired prior to the first round. The intermediate and advanced groups will start game play the first morning; however the Monday morning game played in the intermediate group will be a practice game that will not count toward the final standings. The last round of the tournament will be Friday morning. 

 

Friday afternoon is reserved for the simultaneous exhibition (1:00) and the awards ceremony (3:45). There will be trophies awarded for the tournament, and special prizes (usually chess books) for the best game played (in each group) in the simultaneous exhibition. All campers will get a t-shirt, certificate of completion and a chess related item. There will also be a best overall camper prize and scorekeeping prizes for each group.

 

I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have, you can reach me by email at: pjjsz@idcomm.com or phone 303 652 8890.

 

See you at camp!

                                                          

Paul Szeligowski

Director