The dates for the biggest Tucson summer chess camp are here! It is never too early to plan for big chess events so we post this early for everyone’s convenience.

The 7TH ANNUAL WESTERN ALLIANCE TUCSON SUMMER CHESS CAMP will be held in the Central Tucson!
The International School of Tucson (newly relocated to the brand new campus near UMC) will host the event. Many of you are familiar with the school and probably had an opportunity to play some of their chess club members. IST Chess club is one of the most dedicated and fastest growing Tucson Chess schools and we are proud to partner with them for this event.

It is an event open to all for players ranging approximately between 100 USCF and 1800 USCF ratings. All age groups are welcome.

Summer Chess Camps are widely popular throughout the United States, and thousands of players each year use this opportunity to learn from masters in intense, day-long sessions. Ever since we held our widely popular Western Alliance Tucson Summer Camp in 2006, a niche was created for similar events for chess enthusiasts throughout Arizona and its surrounding states. The players who attended these Camps have since greatly increased their chess knowledge, rating, and won numerous State and National titles. The Camps helped them boost their desire to play chess and to study and enjoy this wonderful game. Our Camps provide a perfect blend of chess studies, interaction with coaches and other players, and lots of fun. It was no coincidence that we had more than 70 participants in the main Camp, and dozens of non-campers took part in our Evening Activities. Last year, our camp participants also enjoyed the benefit of having two instructors per group for most camp days. As the organizer of the Western Alliance Tucson Chess Camps, I am very pleased to see how the interest for playing and studying chess had skyrocketed amongst those who attended.

The complete details will be added as we get closer to the actual Camp but here are some highlights from the Camp that might be helpful for new participants as well as those who we had the pleasure of hosting at the camp in the past 6 years.

Each year we get more and more non-Tucsonans participating, who fly out here just for the camp and that is one of the highest compliments we can get.

General info:

1. It is an all-day chess camp with the Main event and Side events each day.
The Main Event will take place each day between Tuesday and Friday (9AM-4PM)
The Side events will include a Simultanious exhibition, Blitz Tournament, Bughouse tournament and on the last day (June 30th) a free USCF Tournament.
2. There will be 4 groups, each divided by rating and overall strength.
3. Groups change instructors according to the schedule and most groups will have more than 1 Instructor per lecture.
4. Each Lecture/lesson will be 1.5 hour long and can be further divided into 2 parts at the Instructor’s discretion.
5. We will have Instructors ranging from Class A to International Masters where different chess approaches and experience levels are encouraged to give the student better understanding of all ways of chess and approaches.We invite only the best coaches from Arizona and other States to ensure the highest quality chess learning for our participants.
6. Each day students will get printouts of the information covered that day.
7. The Camp encourages each individual to present their own unique thoughts to encourage individual thinking.
7. The Camp also emphasises the fun aspect of chess and studies. Students get a chance to win prizes each day during the lectures, during the break and at the Evening Events.
8. Competitiveness is also part of serious chess on any level. Each event can have multiple winners and those winners might play a blitz match for the Grand Prize if necessary.

The Camp schedule

For each day camp hours/lectures will be divided as follows: 9:00-10:30 lecture 1 / 10:30- 12:00 lecture 2 / 12:00- 1:00 Break / 1:00- 2:30 PM lecture 3 and 2:30-4:00 PM- lecture 4.
6. 5:00 PM-7:00 PM- Side Events each day
7. Saturday, June 30th- USCF Tournament

Registration and Discounts:

The Total fee for the Early registrants (first 50 participants only) will be $275, with a $100 deposit before June 10th. After that it will add $25 per week respectively: i.e $300 and $325.

Similar camps usually cost $600+ so make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to learn from the best available coaches.

There will be also family / sibling discount as well as School discounts (6 or more participants per school) and some might qualify for a scholarship. To find out more, please talk to us individually.

Check back soon for the updates and to download the Camp registration form.

For now, just mark the dates and plan for it!

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