Exercise your mind - Embrace the timeless game of kings and queens
Shake a hand, push a pawn, and make a friend!

June 23-June 27, 2008
Lincoln Christian School, Lincoln NE

Full Day: 9:00-4:00, Open to K-12 Students…$250
Half Day: 9:00-12:00, Open to K-5 Students…$150

Top level instruction from an International Grandmaster, a 6-time U.S. Scholastic Champion, and a famous chess author.

Tournament games, speed games, computer games, blindfolded games, and team games.
Time to unwind, shoot hoops, play soccer, and play on the playground.
A delicious lunch and snack (full day only).
Rousing camp cheers, a camp tee shirt, a classy chess medal, and family banquet.

Grandmaster Miron Sher

Grandmaster Miron Sher is among the top players in the world and is an internationally renowned coach. He earned a masters degree in chess coaching in 1987 in Russia. There he coached the Russian Junior Team, Women's Team, and National Team. He has also coached Denmark's National Team.

Grandmaster Sher moved to New York about nine years ago and presently teaches chess in several public and private New York City schools where chess is part of the curriculum just like math and music. He also trains some of the nations top junior players. One student, Fabiano Caruana, holds the record of being the youngest U.S. player ever to defeat a grandmaster. Another is Lincoln's Keaton Kiewra, the Nebraksa State Champion and a six-time national scholastic champion.

The grandmaster title is the highest in chess. There are hundreds of thousands of chess players in the U.S. but only a handful of FIDE grandmasters. Researchers have estimated that attaining the grandmaster ranking requires about 50,000 hours of intensive study. That is the equivalent of studying eight hours per day for 17 years! GM Sher continues to study at a high level by reviewing and memorizing hundreds of newly played games every week.

International Master John Watson

John Watson is an International Master (FIDE); and Life Master (United States Chess Federation). He was born in 1951, grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and was educated at Brownell-Talbot, Harvard University and the University of California at San Diego, earning a degree in Electrical Engineering. John was National High School Champion and has won national and International tournaments, He is a well-known chess author who has written almost 30 books, including award-winning works which have been translated into German, Spanish, and Italian.

John has also been a teacher for over three decades; his most prominent student was World Junior Champion Tal Shaked. He has written many articles over the years for various chess publications, and is well-known for his longstanding book review column for The Week in Chess. John conducts weekly interviews of chess players and personalities on Chess.FM, an Internet radio channel which is part of the Internet Chess Club (ICC).

Keaton Kiewra

Keaton Kiewra is one of the most decorated players in the history of Nebraska chess. Keaton won six national scholastic chess titles. He is the five-time defending Nebraska State Champion and the youngest player ever to win the state chess title (age 14). In 2005 he won the National Scholar-Chessplayer Outstanding Achievement Award given to the top high school chess player and student in the country. Keaton coached the Maxey, Pyrtle, and Randolph Elementary Chess teams in past years. His teams captured five state championships. Keaton presently attends the University of Texas at Dallas on a chess scholarship and competes for their nationally ranked chess team. Keaton defeated former national champion Hikaru Nakamura when both were 13 years old.

Tom O'Connor

Dr. Tom O'Connor is "Dr. Chess" in Nebraska. He has coached chess in several schools and directed dozens of scholastic events. Tom has also coached several of Nebraska's top scholastic players.

Ken Kiewra

Ken Kiewra, former President of the Lincoln Chess Foundation, was responsible for organizing the Lincoln Chess Camp for the previous four years. Ken has organized numerous chess festivals, instructional camps, and tournaments. He has also coached chess at several Lincoln elementary schools and is presently the Maxey Elementary School chess coach. Ken is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska. One of Dr. Kiewra’s research interests is chess expertise. He and Dr. Tom O’Connor coauthored a 2005 Chess Life article about young chess masters and how they came to be so good so young. When Ken works with chess students he teaches them how to be good learners as well. Ken is the author of two books on learning: a) Learning to Learn: Making the Transition from Student to Life-Long Learner and b) Learn How to Study and SOAR to Success.

Tom Lombard

Tom Lombard is president of the Lincoln Chess Foundation and chief organizer of this year's chess camp. He is a former President of the Nebraska State Chess Association, a prominent chess coach, event organizer, and tournament director.