NJ Futurity: Round 1 Results

The first round of the Second New Jersey International Futurity has concluded!

GM Yudasin (Black) beat NJ Knockout Evan Ju (White), in a 42 move Najdorf. It seemed like Ju had chances up until at least move 35 in a Rook and six Pawn versus Rook and six pawn endgame, but it ended rather quickly. I don't pretend to tell you where exactly it went wrong for Ju, but seven moves later, Yudasin had two connected passed pawns on his fifth rank.

IM Saenz (White) and NJ Knockout Dean Ippolito (Black) drew in a 34 move Slav. The relay site gives 35 moves, but the last moves are outright blunders, so I suspect it they are relay errors.

IM Scekic (White) lost to last year's winner GM Sergey Erenburg, in an exciting 46 move Slav, where both sides had furious attacks at the end, but Erenburg's was more powerful. Again, the last move or two are unclear, likely because of the relay.

The first GM clash, between Ehlvest (White) and Palatnik (Black) ending with a win for Ehlvest in the midst of a King and Pawn endgame. The game started as a Queen's Gambit Declined Tarrasch.

The game between the two NJ Knockouts, IM Zlotnikov (White) and Mackensie Molner (Black), ended with Molner a few moves from mating Zlotnikov, in that rarest of endings, Knight and Bishop against Zlotnikov's lone king. Zlotnikov played for a while and clearly wanted Molner to prove that he could execute the W-maneuver and mate him. When Molner proved that he had actually studied his endgame technique, Zlotnikov resigned.

Standings after round 1:
1.0 Ehlvest, Erenburg, Molner, Yudasin
0.5 Ippolito, Saenz
0.0 Ju, Palatnik, Scekic, Zlotnikov

Combined, the NJ Knockouts are 1.5 / 4.0.

The second round begins tomorrow at 10am at the Dean of Chess Academy in Branchburg, NJ.