The 7th Annual Western Alliance Tucson Summer Chess Camp is under way and open for registrations.
There are less than 2 months left before the next Western Alliance Tucson Summer Chess Camp!
This is your chance to join the largest Tucson camp of the year with amazing Instructors at a very affordable rate.

Official Camp info: Camps are one of the quickest ways to learn an excessive amount chess in a short period of time at a very affordable rate and have great fun at the same time. This is our 7th year of this Camp and each year we get more and more participants from every age groups and level. This Camp is always held on the last full week of June each year not to conflict with the school session as well as the 4th of July weekend.

Dates: The Camp starts on Tuesday (June 26th) and runs all the way til June 29th (Friday). On Saturday we hold a USCF rated tournament as part of the camp for all the Camp participants and non-participants.

Location: The Camp will be held at the newest location of the 2012 State Champion team- the International School of Tucson (located near UMC hospital between Grand and Campbell). Previously we held it at the Green Fields Country Day school but this year we moved it to a more central location and a school that hosts so many strong chess minds.

Who can join? This is a camp for everyone, from 4 year olds to 90 year olds!

What are the times?The camp is an all-day event with Evening activities (Simul, Blitz and Bughouse) included.

Who can join? There will be most likely 4 groups based on age and USCF rating.It will be up to about 1850 USCF and start as low as with kids who just know the chess moves. The Main event goes from 9AM-4PM and the Evening Events will go from 5PM-7PM.

Instructors: The group of Instructors will be chosen based on their experience both as a coach and a tournament player. Many Instructors are titled coaches with extensive experience in coaching chess while some are Master level National Champion tournament players. Many groups will have not one but 2 Instructors per group!

Lesson Plan. Each day we will have 3 of the 1.5 hour lectures / lessons on very different subjects by different Instructors. We will make sure each day subjects vary, i.e if the group had a class on Openings, then the next subject will for example be “Tactics” and so on. This helps with a better attention span and to not let anyone get bored. Each 1.5 hour class can also be divided into 2 parts, at the discretion of the Instructor of that group. The last lesson of the day (another 1.5 hours) will deal with a practical approach- players will play recorded games and then the Instructor will go over them to help improve on mistakes and weaknesses.

Registration: The Early Registration fee is $275. It goes higher closer to the Camp dates or when we get 50 registrants.

What are the Evening Events? Each day (except the last day of the camp) we hold fun events full of prizes that majority of players usually love.
Day 1 will have a Simultaneous Exhibition with a Master (when 1 person plays about 20 people at the same time).
Day 2 will have a Blitz tournament and Day 3 will have a team Bughouse event.

USCF Tournament: The USCF tournament will take place June 30th (Saturday) and be a usual USCF tournament that everyone is so familiar with.

Is there a separate fee for those extra events? NO! It is an all-inclusive Camp. Each event has a fee only if you are not a full Camp member.

Fun/ Prizes. There will be great many prizes for each event as well as on each day in each group. They will included trophies, medals, ribbons, certificates and even toys.

Will younger kids get tired? Everyone gets tired from doing something on a very intense level for many hours. From our past (and amazing) experience regarding the younger kids, many actually stayed all the way to the Evening events and didn’t get tired at all. We were pleasantly shocked but pretty surprised. So while each kid is different, we do not foresee anyone getting tired by 4 PM (because how the Camp is structured and divided into sections to make things more fun) and after it the parents can decide if they want to stay for the Evening events or not.

What if we cannot stay for the entire Camp? Then we can pro-rate it if needed.Each case will be different.

Discounts: There are 3 types of Discounts / scholarships available.
1. Family Discount (2 or more per family)
2. School Discount (5+ per school)
3. Scholarship for those who have trouble affording it or for out-of-towners.
If you believe you qualify for any of those- let us know.

Registration / Deposit: In order to register a participant, we will need the complete forms for each participant and a $100 deposit sent. Right now the easiest way is to send the deposit check (made to ACFS) to 2772 N Neruda Ln, Tucson, AZ, 85712 but later an on-line registration form will be available too using a credit card or a paypal. Remember that only first 50 participants get this advertised rate. You can also send the entire amount ($275 for 1 child unless discounts apply) and if there will be more fee reduction then on site during the camp you will get a refund for that amount.

Let your friends, students and teammates know and download the entire file here: WA2012RegistrationPacket

For any questions please do not hesitate to e-mail me at laltounian@msn.com

Good luck and see you there!

IM Levon Altounian
2008-Current AZ State Champion
June 26-30th Summer Camp Organizer.