AGazine, November 2019

Calendar of Events

If you do not see your league’s events above, please send your schedule to bngolden1@cox.net.

New League in Florida

Kendra Palumbo

Sarah Palumbo

In the list of events above, you will notice the name “Florida Atlantic University Lab School.” This is a new league within that school in Boca Raton, Florida. The league was founded by Kendra Palumbo with the able assistance of her daughter, Sarah, an AGLOA Outstanding Senior in 2017. Kendra’s students participated in the Palm Beach Academic Games League before becoming a separate entity this year.

Here’s the story of the league in Kendra’s own words.

“It’s amazing the amount of growing interest. I started with four kids six years ago and now on the evaluation online sites, we’re voted as the best activity at the school, and I have over 100 kids. Yikes. So exciting!”

When asked, “What is the secret of your success?” Kendra replied: “We set up our program a little differently from some schools. My players who graduate stay and then help the younger ones. We also have a mentor program between grades which creates a closer sense of community and family. Students have fun playing the games, and the goal for us is to create an environment that’s fun and everyone helps everyone. I tell them every year you can be the best player, but if you are not polite and respectful, you will not play. They know up front our major theme is to help each other and learn along the way. While our players have played under Palm Beach County for the last six years, our players have brought home over 20 individual titles and were on numerous national championship teams. So in short, kindness matters and just keeps fueling our team. We look forward to our first year on our own as it will be challenging but we hope to rise to the challenge.”

Varied Schedules

In compiling the calendars of the various leagues, it’s interesting to note the order in which the games are played.

Down Memory Lane: Suggested Equations Changes 1972

Here’s some of the proposed changes in the Equations rules for the 1972-73 school year.

1. Change rule ET6 from "A BLUNDER is insulated by a subsequent Move" to "A Blunder is insulated by a subsequent move by another player." ["BLUNDER" is today called "Illegal Procedure."]
2. Add a sentence to ET15: "The timeout must be called after all Solutions from the previous Shake have been accepted or rejected but before the stall is begun for picking variations for the next Shake."
3. Delete the Jr/Sr variation No numerals in REQUIRED.
4. Delete the Jr/Sr variation that Multiplying by zero is forbidden.
5. Delete the Jr/Sr variation forbidden a zero exponent.
6. Change the wording of the Base variation so that players must play in base m (where m is 6 to 10). Also change the last sentence to allow two-digit numbers.