Dear chess families,

I want to take a moment to discuss the importance of summer camp. It has been on my mind as the weather has warmed and the positive weight of what we accomplished in Saratoga last weekend sinks in. We came within a point of winning the triple crown of scholastic chess; PS 130K won Elementary Championship, while PS 77 won Primary Championship and finished in 2nd place in K-1 Championship by 1 point. Two of our regular students won individual, open section State Championships; Grayson Xiang of PS 130K in Elementary, Max Mulholland of PS 198 in Primary (pictured above, with me). And there were many other strong performances throughout the event in both open and under sections.

PS 130K (top) won Elementary Championship. PS 77 Lower Lab won Primary Championship.

This success did not materialize out of thin air. It was not a fluke. I had a strong sense that this year would bring a windfall of championship success for us when I was running our Elite Camp all of last July and August. For instance, two of our most consistent campers were Grayson and Max, mentioned earlier. Both were already superstars last year, and they spent the better part of 8 weeks training with us all summer. In that time Max raised his rating from 1543 in early July to 1720 by late August. Grayson broke 2000 for the first time at the end of week 4, and then later broke 2100 at one of our school year camps.

(Top) Max trained with us all summer, and took home clear first place in Saratoga with a perfect 6-0 showing. (Bottom) Kai, Grayson, Shiv, and Jack review 1800+ level endgame worksheets with Grandmaster Alex Lenderman, who taught our highest rated students all summer.

Our camp was a concentrated, spectacular environment for sharpening skills, learning new concepts and techniques, and toughening our kids’ resiliency. Every day they played two rated games, analyzed them with Master and Grandmaster coaches, and got two lessons on important topics ranging from difficult calculation, to recent developments in opening theory, to a weeks long deep dive on theoretical rook endgames. It was regular to see 60 of the top scholastic players in the tri-state area in one building with a shared purpose of becoming as strong as they possibly can.

In addition to our regular schedule, we also had a lineup of special guests to inspire our kids. Superstar players like GM Andy Woodward, IM Carissa Yip, and GM Sam Shankland came by to give guest lectures, sign books and shirts, and participate in simuls against our top players.

I was particularly involved (along with Grandmaster Alex Lenderman) with our Elite Camp for players rated 1200+ USCF. However, we saw tremendous growth from players throughout all of our camp locations. For instance, Benjamin Frye from PS 166 spent 6 weeks with us at our PS 33 location in Chelsea after graduating as a 1000 level Kindergartner. This past weekend he scored an incredible 5.5 out 6 points to finish as co-champion in the K-1 Championship section. The experience he built from playing over 60 games and having 60 lessons with us in the summer was invaluable to his Saratoga success.

Across all three major sections, we saw students reap the fruits of their hard summer work to become state champions.

We saw similar success from players all across our schools and networks, not just those playing in open sections last weekend. For instance, Rohan Shukla spent several weeks training with us last summer, as well as many of our school year camps (including the week long Saratoga Prep camp in February). All of this helped him turn in flawless 6.0 performance in the Under 800 section to claim first place and smash past the 1000 USCF rating threshold.

My particular area of focus as a director has been on training our players rated 1200 and higher, but all of our general admission locations (Upper East Side, Chelsea, and Brooklyn) are fantastic. Every week new players would cross the 1200 threshold from these satellite locations and graduate into the highly rigorous environment we were operating at our Elite Camp home.

One aspect of the game that we emphasize at length in all locations is growing from losses. We like to say that chess provides a "safe place to fail." Every week I saw kids go make heartbreaking mistakes in their play. But the rinse-and-repeat constancy of the rated games and coaching support helped toughen our kids' resolve, and internalize that losses are necessary for developing understanding and skill.

As a parent of a particularly willful toddler myself, I know how important it is for children to learn this lesson. Chess is ultimately a battle of competing wills. When a player defeats you, they have thwarted your goals and instincts. This happens in life regularly, often with stakes much higher than the loss of a few rating points. Learning to come back and grow from these setbacks is what sculpts our childhood character into maturity.

Students getting post-game analysis and support at our Upper East Side camp.

I speak about all this because this coming Sunday (March 15th) represents the early bird deadline for registering for camp this summer. Link and info here. Each and every one of our more than 500 participants in Saratoga saw what the mountaintop can look like. If we are committed to putting in the effort this coming July and August, we will see continued success on the biggest stages.

I look forward to seeing everyone this summer,

Coach Logan

Summer Camp Info

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