New Jersey FIDE Events

NM David Grasso vs. IM Dean Ippolito

Dean Ippolito and Jesse Kraai report at the USCF site (see "Jesse Wins Futurity; Dean Wins 1st FIDE Event") on the two recent New Jersey FIDE events: the 3rd New Jersey Futurity (won by GM Jesse Kraai) and the 1st Dean of Chess Academy / Transnet FIDE Invitational (won by IM Dean Ippolito, with NM David Grasso a close second). Both were held at the Dean of Chess Academy in Branchburg. Kevin E. Chen took some excellent photos of the FIDE event (see sample above), which have been posted at Diamondback and Jim West's blogs. Jim West also offers quite a bit of coverage, annotating several of his games and posting photos by Steve Ferrero. Special thanks to IA Glenn Petersen, TD Aaron Kiedes, and the sponsors -- including TransNet Corporation, Dean of Chess Academy, and Michael Khodarkovsky's International Chess School -- for making it possible to offer FIDE rating and norm opportunities in the Garden State.

Erenburg Wins 2nd NJ Futurity

Ippolito - Erenburg
Black to play

Twenty-five-year-old Israeli GM Sergey Erenburg won the 2nd NJ Futurity International with a score of 7.5/9, a full point ahead of his nearest competitor, GM Leonid Yudasin.  Erenburg drew all three of the other GMs in the event and beat everyone else.  I have analyzed his best game, against IM Dean Ippolito, which justly won the brilliancy prize donated by Pete Tamburro (see "Two Brilliancies from the 2nd NJ Futurity 2008").  Ippolito's Dean of Chess Academy hosted the tourney, which ran from July 7-11.  

Black plays a shocker in the diagram above, going on to win in scintillating style.  I have also analyzed the game Ju - Scekic, which featured the gambit 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 c6!?!  White played a bit too passively and was eventually overcome with a vigorous attack.  Scekic demonstrated an aggressive style in the event and his games are worth a look.

Erenburg also took clear first place at last year's NJ Futurity.  No norms were scored in either tournament.  I have posted the rest of the games online. You can also view the PGN file of all games from the NJSCF site or download the CBV from NJoyChess.

Related articles:

• Erenburg Wins NJ Futurity Again by Jennifer Shahade at USCF
  
• NJ Futurity II -- Erenburg Repeats! at the NJ Knockouts Blog
  
• Ehlvest and Erenburg Lead Futurity, New Jersey Futurity Starts and Erenburg Wins NJ Futurity (2007) by Jennifer Shahade