Scott Caldwell and Daniel Mattson Tie for First Place in the Great Falls Chinook Open Pushed out of its usual National Chess Day alignment, the 2019 Great Falls Chinook Open still came through as a successful Grand Prix tournament.  Nine players turned in scores of 3.0 or better to get on the Leader Board or…

Montana City Scholastic Fourteen scholastic players braved the season’s first storm to compete in the first Montana City Scholastic held September 28. The group played in two sections. Six players entered the more challenging “Giants” section while the second section (‘Pioneers”) had eight players. Among the “Giants”, Paul Harmon and Royal Winston each turned in…

Billings Blitz – 10/2/2019   Nine players ventured out to the Last Chance Pub & Cider Mill on Wednesday, October 2nd, for Billings 2nd speed chess tournament. The games took place in the warehouse room (apple storage) just off of the main dining room. There were two very effective space heaters to combat the cooler…

Billings Boys & Girls Youth Club Scholastic – 9/28/2019   The Boys & Girls Club youth tournament, directed by Mo Bain, took place on Friday, September 28th. Twenty-six kids from ages 6-14 were on hand to play chess and eat pizza! The players were divided into 3 sections: age 8-9 (14 kids), age 10-11 (8…

2019 Big Sky Country Open   Congratulations to 4.0 co-champions, Josep Maria Companyo Pagerols, Wilton Strickland and Dustin Sneeden who split the 1st & 2nd prize money. The upset prize went to Daltri Freitas for his 251 point upset. The under 1500 prize went to Thomas Walthall who scored 3.0 with his 3 wins. The…

Billings Chess Club Blitz – August 22, 2019 The Billings Chess Club offered its first rated blitz tournament last night! The time control was G5 with no delay. Ten players came out to test their skills at speed chess, despite near hurricane like conditions outside as we waited for the last two players to arrive.…

Billings July Quads Billings chess players tried to beat the heat this past weekend (7/26-27) by playing some rated chess indoors! A summer quad, this time drawing 12 players, was organized for the second year in a row. The players were neatly divided into 3 playing sections based on rating. The time control was Game…

2019 Montana Champion – Dorje McPherron   Congratulations to Dorje McPherron who won the Montana Closed in Bozeman the weekend of May 18-19. The Closed featured the 6 highest (active) rated players in Montana, including 4 players with previous Montana Championships.  The games were held with all 3 boards on a single table giving all…

Schoessler, Sneeden, Skovron Tie at the St Patrick Open   The inaugural 2019 St. Patrick Open left a few feeling the luck o’ the Irish, and others green with envy! The event was held in Billings, MT the weekend of 3/16-17/2019 at the Mary Alice Fortin Room of the Billings Clinic (check Facebook for Photos)…

Jim Skovron Wins the January Thaw   Jim Skovron won the 2019 January Thaw, emerging with 4 points from a tight race in the annual tournament held the last weekend in January.  Wilton Strickland, Dan Mattson, and Mike Mueller tied for the second place finish with 3.5 points apiece. The 16 player tournament produced long…

Benjamin Vogel wins 2018 Turkey Open   Congratulations to all of the prize winners. Benjamin Vogel, who recently moved to Montana from Maryland, won clear 1st in this year’s Turkey Open. Young Dorje McPherron of Missoula won 2nd; Scott Caldwell of Missoula and young Jonathan Geyman of Bonner’s Ferry, ID shared the “B” prize; Michael…

Big Sky Country Chess Tournament – Butte – Sept 2018   Brad Bodie – Champion   5-0   Dan Mattson – 2nd   4-1   Thomas Walthall – Junior Champion  4.5 – 0.5 & Open Biggest Upset (539 pts)   The Big Sky Country Open tournament launched the Montana Grand Prix season with a firecracker start September…

Duke – McPherron – Strickland   Montana State Co-Champions 2018   Congratulations to David Duke, Wilton Strickland, and Dorje McPherron for playing rough and hanging tough through the May 19-20 weekend at the 2018 Montana Closed in Butte.  Each finished at 3.5 with David gaining the tie-break edge and the champion seed for the 2019…

5th Annual MIS Tournament Results   The 5th annual Missoula International School Scholastic Chess Tournament drew 28 participants from various schools around western Montana as well as good crowd of local talent.  De La Salle School in Browning won the “door prize” –a bag of chess themed pencils with six entries.  Alberton After-School Program brought…

TURKEY OPEN 2017 This year’s Turkey Open was once again well attended with 40 entries thanks in large part to the addition of 11 new players from the Hamilton Chess Club who participated for 2 rounds. Hopefully they enjoyed their indoctrination to tournament chess and we’ll be seeing them again in the future. The Spokane…