Matteo Nero won the 2025 Montana Chess Championship held June 21-22 in Bozeman. Matteo is the third high school student to win the state championship, following Matt Guthrie in 1981 & 2024 champion Ben Curtis. John Julian finished second and Brandon Arensmeyer ended the tournament with a nice win to finish third. The tournament only had 2 players above the age of 25 and it is the third year in a row that the state champion has been under 20 years old. There hasn’t been a state champion over 25 since 2021 so our more experienced players have some work to do!