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 the players visibility of all the games.
After 3 rounds of back and forth action the first day ended with Dorje McPherron with 2.5 points holding a half point lead over Richard Hobbs, Jim Skovron, and Wilton Strickland. Round 4 ended with a Skovron / McPherron tie for the lead and a head to head match in round 5. McPherron prevailed while Strickland won his final match to claim second.
Although his championship streak was snapped in 2019, congratulations to David Duke for his historic winning streak from 2014-2018. Since the Closed was started in 1981 David is the only player to win at least a share of the championship for more than 3 years in a row. His 5 year streak will give everyone something to chase going forward !
The standings cross-table is posted in Tournament Standings and all the games will be posted under the Games link.