2008 Montana State Open
Submitted by Bill McBroom on 04/08/2008

David Duke, with four points, was the top Montana finisher at the 73rd Montana Open. Robert Feldstein, of Brooklyn, was tied for best score with his own four points. They split the 1st/2nd prize and received $93 each. While short of the 30 players required to pay the advertized prize fund, MCA was able to pay our approximately 85% of the listed prizes.

Of the 25 players participating, several were from out of state including our old friend, Arman Goplen, now from North Dakota. Jerry Triggs was an out-of-state expert and Alan Kobernat–another expert and the only player to best David Duke–was from California. Like Feldstein before him, Kobernat has set himself the goal of playing in a tournament in all 50 states. There were some Montana players playing in their first rated tournament: Kip Farnum and Keith Hall. Welcome, fellows.

Five players had 3 ½ points. Timothy Schoessler of North Dakota did better by taking the $33 class prize for A players. This left Alan Kobernat, Jim Skovron, Sherwood Moore, and Dustin Thompson to share ($16.75 apiece) the B prize combined with the overall third prize.

Sherwood Moore won the best senior trophy. Ed Tarter victimized Ed McLaughlin for the biggest upset: an impressive 438 rating point difference.

Dan McCourt’s success over the year earned him enough grand prix points to land him along with the other grand prix leader, Jim Skovron, a spot in the State Closed Championship coming this June in Bozeman. As current champion, David Duke is the first seed. Sherwood Moore, Dustin Thompson, and Romie Carpenter earned the right to play for the crown with their performances in the Open. A number of these players multiply qualified.

UCCC 2007 Turkey Open
Submitted by Bill McBroom on 11/03/2007

David Duke of Billings won a clear first in the 2007 Turkey Open with 4 ½ points–a performance befitting a Montana State Co-champion. The event at Missoula’s Grant Creek Best Western Inn was attended by 27 players, four of whom elected to play in the senior section. Twelve of the field were folks from Washington and Idaho. This group included Dawn Fields who “came out of retirement” to participate–and she won her class prize.

There was a six-way tie for 2nd-3rd in the open section: Mike Murray of Port Townsend, WA, John Julian of Spokane, Dave Rowles, also of Spokane, Seattle’s H.G. Pitre, Spokane’s David Meliti, and Eric Eklund of Missoula each scored 3 ½, earning $27 apiece. Zach Countryman and Dan McCourt shared the LT 1800 class prize: each taking $25. Our old friend from Washington, David Griffin, won $40 for his score of 3 points in the under 1600 class. Jim Burney of Spokane, thanks to UCCC’s Dan McCourt, won the $20 upset prize.

Typical of his generosity and support for Montana Chess, David Griffin bought an MCA membership for the highest Washington player. Since there were three in a tie, UCCC contributed the other two.

Ed McLaughlin of Anaconda took first place in the Senior section. And Helena’s Bill Spencer won the biggest upset prize for his performance in that section. Bill and Bob Rajala of Missoula served as assistant tournament directors.

Two things were notable. Luke Gehman, a middle school student in Missoula who has been playing in UCCC weekly events, was paired with four strong players, drawing Mike Jensen and Ted Catton. This gave him a performance rating of 1590 and 849 points higher than his provisional rating of 741. Watch out Spokane! We are grooming our own rating point eating young sharks.

The second item is that the motel’s fire alarm went off just after the start of round two. The players duly exited (and to the relief of the T.D., all thought to stop their clocks). UCCC prepares well for contingencies: Missoula’s Fire Marshall was in the tournament and Bob Rajala quickly sorted things out. It appears that the maintenance man was spraying something a bit too close to a smoke detector and activated the thing with some fumes.

Gary Younker Foundation
Submitted by Bill McBroom on 06/15/2007

Gary Younker Foundation
The Gary Younker Foundation was formed in January, 2002, in honor of Gary Younker, a long time Spokane chess promoter, who passed away from cancer in 2001. The purpose of the foundation is to promote chess in the greater Inland Northwest with special interest in youth chess events. These areas were Gary’s chess passion and the foundation hopes to carry on his memory by promoting those interests.
The Foundation was incorporated under the laws of Washington and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
Donations or questions can be directed to the following address:
Gary Younker Foundation
177 Wildwood Ct
Richland, WA 99352
Current officers are president Kevin Korsmo, vice-president Jeremy Younker, and secretary-treasurer Steve Merwin. The Foundation has guaranteed the prize fund for the last six Dave Collyer Memorial tournaments in Spokane as well as the 2004 Inland Empire Open (played in Richland) and the 2005 revival of the Columbia Cup, also in Richland. The Collyer tourney was started by Gary Younker and has developed into the premiere chess event in eastern Washington.

P.S. It really is a premiere event (W.H.McB.)