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Metropolitan Chess, in partnership with American Chess Academy, is pleased to announce the 2015 Summer Chess Camp, which will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Glendale (photo above), during the dates of July 22-26. Our head instructor for this year’s edition of the camp is none other than World Top Ten GM Wesley So, who has made a rapid leap to the elite levels of chess over the last few years.
So, who originally hails from the Philippines, has just recently switched to the U.S. Federation. He is an exceptionally talented player, having become a grandmaster at the age of 14 in 2007. Since then he has made steady progress, reaching milestone after milestone and winning many tournaments. Some of his earlier accomplishments include winning the Corus Group C in 2009 and advancing to the fourth round of the 2009 World Cup, making headlines after upsetting the likes of Ivanchuk and Kamsky.
In 2014, after tying for fouth place in the Tata Steel super-tournament, Wesley won the prestigious Capablanca Memorial tournament, as well as the ACP Golden Classic. He then went on to win the highly-publicized 2014 Millionaire Chess Open, as well as the 2014 North American Open. Wesley continues to rise even further up the ranks this year, as he finished tied for second place in the 2015 Tata Steel super-tournament, propelling himself into the World Top Ten and reaching a peak FIDE rating of 2788. Wesley will be joined by several other prominent instructors, including:
GM Melikset Khachiyan, GM Dejan Bojkov, IM Andranik Matikozyan...
... IM Armen Ambartsoumian, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, FM Aviv Friedman, and Jay Stallings.
These instructors are quite well known within Southern California and have many years of teaching experience. GM Khachiyan has served as the head coach of the U.S. Women’s Olympiad Team and was the former trainer of GM Levon Aronian (last year’s head instructor). GM Bojkov is a FIDE Senior Trainer and served as the coach of former Women’s World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova. IM Ambartsoumian is the former head coach of the Armenian Olympiad Team and the founder of the American Chess Academy, one of the prominent scholastic organizations within the United States.
Ambartsoumian, Matikozyan and Friedman have also worked as trainers for the United States World Youth Team, giving them many years of experience of nurturing top scholastic talent. WGM Abrahamyan has been coaching for ACA for several years now and remains one of the strongest female players in the United States, being a consistent member of the U.S. Women’s Olympiad Team. Expert Jay Stallings is the founder of the California Youth Chess League, which has taught chess to over 35,000 kids since being established in 1996.
As usual, the camp will be divided into five groups by rating, and instructors will rotate each day so that every group will get a chance to learn from every instructor. This year there will also be an “Adults Only” section, which will only be open to chess players aged 18 and above. The camp will also feature daily evening activities, which include blitz and bughouse tournaments as well as a clock simul given by one or more of the instructors. Overall the camp promises to provide a professional and fun learning environment for players of all ages and levels.
For full details and registration info about the camp, please visit our web site.
It is the goal of Metropolitan Chess, Inc. to promote and support the game of chess through community outreach and local, national, and international partnerships. American Chess Academy is a non-profit educational organization developed to enrich the lives of students through chess.
Aronian at Summer Chess Camp in LA
6/13/2014 – For some years now the Metropolitan Chess Club has run yearly summer camps in Los Angeles, featuring some very, very strong instructors (like Michael Adams and Viswanathan Anand). This year the world's number two Levon Aronian will be the lead instructor, and the camp will be staged in Glendale, home to one of the richest Armenian communities in the world. Pictorial report.
Metropolitan Chess Camp – Anand in Los Angeles
9/6/2012 – A month ago we got a call from Vishy Anand from Los Angeles, who was breathless exhilarated about a smoked salmon omlette "with lashings of guacamole" and the stunning view from his hotel. Anand was in Los Angeles, set to take part in a chess training camp with 100 youthful players, give lectures and a simul. The organiser of the camp, Ankit Gupta, sent us this pictorial report of Anand's visit.
Wesley So in Hamburg
6/26/2015 – While travelling from Prague to Hamburg, GM Wesley So took the opportunity to visit the ChessBase headquarters in Hamburg. There he met the ChessBase family, was able to see the offices and studio, and enjoyed some one-on-one instruction with resident experts to finetune his understanding of the indispensable program. He also popped in the studio and kibitzed on the Norway games.
Editorial note: Recently Wesley visited the ChessBase office in Hamburg and my home privately. I had previously met him as a 15-year-old lad in Wijk aan Zee in 2009 and chatted with him at breakfast. There he famously said, when the subject became complex: "Can we go on talking when my English is better?" Well, we did, six years later, and I was very pleasantly surprised how Wesley has turned out: bright, intelligent, positive, humorous. The whole family enjoyed an evening with him and his foster mother Lotis, who turned out to be equally pleasant: perceptive, warm-hearted and a wonderful conversationalist, in impeccable, cultivatedf English, I might add. So it is going to be a highly enjoyable Chess Camp which you should not miss, if you have the chance to attend. – Frederic Friedel
