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2014 Metropolitan & ACA Summer Chess Camp


World Number Two Levon Aronian in Los Angeles By KOSTYA KAVUTSKIY


(L to R) Andranik Matikozyan, Ardashes Kassakhian, Melikset Khachiyan, Kostya Kavutskiy, Zareh Sinanyan, Dejan Bojkov, Tatev Abrahamyan, Jerry Yee, Ankit Gupta, Levon Aronian, Jay Stallings, Armen Ambartsoumian.


WORLD NUMBER TWO GM LEVON Aronian visited southern California this summer to teach over 100 chess players at the 2014 Metropolitan & American Chess Academy (ACA) Summer Chess Camp. The event took place from July 9th through 13th at the Glendale Hilton Hotel in Glendale, California, and was the first collaborative effort between Metropolitan Chess and ACA, a local educational organ- ization based in Los Angeles. Joining Aronian were several prominent instruc- tors, including GM Dejan Bojkov of Bulgaria, as well as locals GM Melikset Khachiyan, IM Andranik Matikozyan, IM Armen Ambartsoumian (founder of ACA), WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, Jay Stallings (founder of the California Youth Chess League), and Jerry Yee. Although Levon had visited Los Angeles


before, this was his first time visiting the culturally rich Armenian community in Glendale, with many Armenian businesses, churches, and schools. Levon also has a personal connection with Khachiyan, who was his childhood coach, as well as long- lasting friendships with Matikozyan and Ambartsoumian, who convinced him to come for the camp. A few days before the


10 October 2014 | Chess Life


start, the city of Glendale organized a public press conference with Aronian, who was then ceremonially presented with a key to the city. Running the day-to-day organization was


MetroChess President Ankit Gupta, Ambart- soumian, and myself. With over 100 participants, we sure had our hands full! The students were divided up into five groups, organized by rating, with the high- est group reserved for players rated 2000+. While they stayed in their respective con- ference rooms at the Hilton the instructors were rotated through each group so that students could experience a variety of coaches. Each day followed the same sched- ule: a morning lecture session, lunch, training games, and an afternoon lecture session. The training games were used not only for instructional purposes, but also for a tournament with a special prize for each winner: a blitz game with Aronian on the final day! The chance to play against the living legend was quite motivating, with students vying hard for first place in their group. Aronian spent each morning session with


the top group, and would then cycle through the remaining groups in the after-


noon session, spending up to an hour and a half with each at a time. His lectures were mostly taken from his own games, where he would present a few ideas that he thought were particularly aesthetic. He had a very engaging personality, involving everyone and making the classes not only instructive, but entertaining as well. The top group was quite strong, with a dozen masters present, as well as 2014 U.S. Jun- ior Champion GM Kayden Troff, who relished the chance to learn from Aronian. “I appreciated getting to see and talk to Aronian, he was very personable and just a lot of fun—along those lines—he was kind and joked around with us during the lessons, which was really cool,” said Troff. Kayden was also impressed by Aronian’s analytical skill, saying, “… he is a really strong player but at times you get a good feeling of not only ... wow he is a good player! But wow that’s how he sees this position or move ... amazing.” The camp was also suitable for begin-


ners, who began developing their chess skills under Jay Stallings and Jerry Yee, two local coaches with many years of teach- ing experience. Jay and Jerry did an excellent job of keeping things fun by


PHOTOS COURTESY OF METROCHESS


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