Usdan Center Oct. 12 Tournament

 
 
Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, America?s premier summer arts day camp, will present the Second Annual Usdan Chess Challenge on Sunday October 12, 2008 at the Center?s recently-built, on-site Maurice Hexter Chess Center.  Open to students in grades K-12, this is a US Chess Federation-rated chess tournament, non-elimination, with Trophies to the top 5 in each section.  Additional participation prizes will be awarded.
 
The Challenge is directed by Usdan Chess Instructors, Brian Karen and Joel Salman. Brian Karen is ranked in the top 5% of tournament chess players and is a member of the U.S. Chess Federation Scholastic Committee. Joel Salman is a Professional Chess Master, FIDE Master, United States Chess Federation Life Master, a National Master. Senior Tournament Director, and a Bermuda National Team Coach at FIDE World Youth Championships
 
 
The tournament fee is $25 with advance registration for $35 for on-site registration.  For tournament information and registration details, write to:  [email protected], or visit www.usdan.com, or call (631) 643-7900.
 
 
SCHEDULE AND SECTIONS
 
For all sections, Round 1 begins at 12 Noon, and Time Control is G/30.
 
Junior High/High School, Grades 7-12,
Elementary Grades 4-6,
Primary Grades K-3
 
 
The regular summer chess program at Usdan Center, this year running June 30 through August 15, 2008, is designed to meet the individual needs of each student and is offered in cooperation with The National Scholastic Chess Foundation. Multiple classes offer instruction to beginner through advanced players. Players new to chess learn its rules, notation and the opening, middle and end games. Technique is acquired in organized and free play with other students and faculty. Advanced players develop a repertory of game strategies. Celebrated chess masters visit Usdan as guest teachers.
 
 
Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, America's largest summer arts day camp, was formed to introduce young people, ages 6 to 18, to the arts through performance and study with a professional faculty of artist-teachers. The Center's mission is to provide children with the arts as a companion for life through great teaching, and the camaraderie of fellow students who share a love the arts. Usdan offers more than 40 programs in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, media arts, chess, creative writing, and nature and ecology. No audition is required for most Usdan programs, and one-third of the Center's 1,600 students receive tuition assistance to study at Usdan. Children commute to the Center every weekday for seven weeks each summer, traveling on on air-conditioned buses that leave from most New York metropolitan-area neighborhoods. A special feature of the students' daily program is the Center's series of Festival Concerts, daily educational performances by distinguished artists, such as the Tokyo String Quartet, James Galway, Canadian Brass, jazz legends Jimmy Heath and Billy Taylor, the Limon Dance Company, and cast members of current Broadway shows. Although the Center's goal is simply to encourage participation in the arts, Usdan's unique program has also inspired many former students to go on to professional careers. Alumni include actors Natalie Portman, Lisa Gay Hamilton (featured in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean on Broadway) and Jordan Leeds (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), award-winning playwright Michele Lowe, singers Mariah Carey and Jane Monheit, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and numerous ballet companies including Pacific Northwest, Ballet San Jose, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. Usdan Center is an agency of UJA-Federation of New York
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