Thaw Produces Good Showing
Submitted by Murray Strong on 01/29/2012

The 2012 edition of Joyce\'s January Thaw drew the best attendence in years January 28th and 29th. Three shared top honors with scores of 4.0: Jim Skovron (1853), Bob Martin (1699), and Sherwood Moore (1692). The biggest upset was between two provisional players: Larry Singleton (543p) defeated Frank Miller (1473p). However, according to USCF rule 28D, provisional players are only allowed \"place\" prizes, and the award for the upset went to John Hay (1461)for his win over Romie Carpenter (1831). Conrad Lee (1311) was not far behind, topping Ron Erickson (1663). Entries included two new members to the USCF and MCA. Sabrina Lee, mother of Conrad Lee, and Mike Muller, both of Bozeman. Unrated Muller made an impressive debut with 3.5 points defeating Henry Pallares (1564), Bill McBroom (1639), and Jim Wierson (1464), and drawing with Bob Rajala (1508).

Belanoff sweeps, Julian and Murray score 4
Submitted by Dan McCourt on 11/15/2011

Ted Belanoff scored the 1st 5-0 Turkey sweep in over a decade as he took clear first at the 2011 Turkey Open. The Missoula stop on his year-long chess adventure earned him $140 cash and also a $10 pizza in the Saturday morning raffle. He said the pizza was good, Missoula and the UM campus were nice and he enjoyed the competition. He was also keen on the snowfall that left a lot of the regulars reassessing their travel plans Sunday morning.
John Julian and Mike Murray, regular names at the top of the Turkey, were in good form again as they shared 2nd place with 4 points. Bob Phillips and David Griffin each scored 3.5 points to finish just short of the place money but taking the top prize in A and B classes respectively. 3 points earned Bob Rajala best C/D and Larry Singleton was best in E/below with a 2.5 score.
A logjam of players shared 2nd in classes A and B but they earned enough for a gallon and a half of gas. Three members of the Shultz family shared 2nd in class E/below. Only Frank Miller in the C/D group won a clear 2nd.
There weren\'t many upsets in this event but Conrad Lee had the best one as he was a 313 point underdog in his 2nd round win. Conrad also finished with the biggest rating gain at 97 points.
Another well-done Turkey is the books--almost 30 years now. The paychecks will be in the mailstream in the next couple of days. Winners will have to eat macaroni until then.
Thanks and a big tip of the UCCC hat to all who risked bare-knuckle driving to show up and \"push wood\" in Missoula. See you next year!

Tournament Reports
Submitted by Spencer Olmsted on 11/20/2009

This feature is now active, though there are a few other things I still need to fix.