Photos

Our tire swing

Our bird house

The mulberry tree on our backyard

The top of one of our pine trees

The same as the previous picture, but has a little branches in it too.

A squirrel

Another picture of our pine tree

The pine tree

Our other pine tree

Our oak tree

Our house

A bird nest on our neighbor's backyard

A paper birch tree on our neighbors backyard

Our basketball hoop

Piano contest

Today, November 17th, myself and my brother went to a piano competition. The only songs that we were allowed to play are Sonatas and Sonatinas. My brother and I both played a Sonata. I played Sonata in C by Mozart and my brother played a Sonata by a composer named Haydn. The place where we competed was in Naperville. We were not allowed to look into the notes of our songs. Artem and I both got 86% on our songs even though my piano teacher thought my score was unfair. My brother played before me and I was supposed to play at four o'clock, but the person who was supposed to play was not there. After the competition we went to Russian School.

My brother with our piano teacher
Myself with our piano teacher
My brother playing piano at the Russian school

Vertical Endeavors (VE)

Every Tuesday and Friday we go rock climbing in the building Lifetime Fitness. There is a pool, Rock climbing place and many other things. The place Vertical Endeavors has excellent climbing walls and has auto belays that belay you without an other person. There is also human belays where you can't climb with an auto belay and a person has to belay you. My mom and dad are allowed to belay other people. There is also bouldering places where you have nobody to belay you and you climb to the side, not up. They have a rule that you cannot have your foot higher than the place where your shoulder would be when you are standing on the floor. That rule only applies when you are bouldering, and have no spotter. You can climb higher if you have a spotter (a person who stands on the ground bellow you and if you fall he/she will catch you.) There are also classes that you can take to learn how to belay other people and other things necessary for rock climbing. There are also routes that mark the rocks you can climb on if you are doing that route. The routes rocks are marked with colored tape. You can also buy climbing shoes, harnesses and chalk. It is a very good place to rock climb.

Chess lessons

Almost every Saturday we go to take chess lessons with a chess grandmaster named Yury Shulman. We go and then solve a chess problem and then we play a game against another student. Sometimes we bring our games that we notated from tournaments and he shows us our mistakes and tells us what we should have done in the game. The lessons are fun and sometimes on the way back we stop in a restaurant called Pol Bistro.

Russian School

We Joined a Russian school and go there almost every Saturday. Sometimes we do not go there because we have chess tournaments. The Russian school just moved to Naperville. We take lessons for literature and language mechanics. We usually have 6 students including myself and my brother. Usually our schedule is: first we go to take chess lessons with grandmaster Shulman in Barrington. Then we go home and eat, walk our dogs and go to Russian School.

All Grade State Chess Tournament

On November 3rd, 2007 was the Illinois All Grade Chess Tournament. My brother and I participated in this tournament. I got 4 wins and one loss, and I got 5th place. The person who I lost to was Jyotsna Bitra. The person who got first place though was Noah Weeks-Brittan. Our team got first place in fourth grade. I was 4th by rating when I got there after Allen Guo, Jyotsna Bitra, and Phillip Parker-Turner.
Everybody who I played had a rating less than a thousand except for Jyotsna Bitra. The hardest player I played and won was the least rated player that I played. His name is Sam Heil. His rating was somewhere in the 7 hundreds and after the tournament is in the 9 hundreds. He said he was underrated and I believe him.
My Brother won 2 games and 2 losses. He did not get a trophy, but he did get 16th place. The 7th grade team got 2nd place and almost got first.

Myself on the 4th board

Myself on the 1st board about to play Jyotsna Bitra

From right to left: Ian Wilkinson, My brother, Keith Kimberling and Phillip Bush. (the one in the green shirt.) (All the people I mentioned are on our team.)

My friend Phillip Parker-Turner

Our team getting our first place trophy