The 3rd Annual St. Patrick Open took place 3/13-14 at the Doubletree Hotel in Billings, MT and was a resounding success! This was the first over-the-board tournament in MT since the 2020 MT Closed, which was played last August. Thirty players from 4 states attended, including visiting IM Justin Sarkar from NY. Players also hailed from MT-23, WY-3, CO-2, ND-1. Six new players joined the USCF, playing in their first tournament, including a Billings player as the solo female.
The weekend began with a Simultaneous Exhibition with 17 players playing IM Sarkar at once. The games started at 7PM and concluded close to 1030PM. The final 3 boards in play were Mattson, Vogel, & Strickland, with clocks being added to the final two in order to bring the event to a close. No player was able to upset the Master, but not for lack of trying.
The tournament began Saturday morning on the 20th floor of the DoubleTree Hotel, the Skyview Room, with good natural light and a bird’s eye view of the city. The directing was done by Dan Mattson (Bil). When all was said and done, IM Sarkar won the $150 first place prize with a score of 5/5. While this may not be surprising, it was not easy as a couple of the games were quite close and he was in time trouble in round 3 (under 1 min). The games were played with a new time control for MT beginning with 90 minutes while adding 15 seconds of bonus time after each move, making time trouble not quite as crucial as in previous tournaments with only a 5s delay. The second place prize was split between Josep Companyo (WY), Josef Matuszka (Mis), and Tim Schoessler (WY) with scores of 4/5. Christian Fink (Bil) won the under 1600 prize with 3/5. And finally, Matt Hills (CO) took home biggest upset with a victory over Chad Robinson (Bil) in round 5 (362 point spread).
The largest ratings gains were seen by Bradley Fick (WY) +70, Ted Hash (Bil) +74, Matt Hills (CO) +95, and Carl Ritterpusch (Bil) +48. White won 39 games, Black 29, with only 3 draws.
Players seemed eager to play again and hopefully a 4th annual St. Patrick Open is in the future at this wonderful venue. Next up is the MT Open coming soon in May.
Please check Facebook and the MCA site for photos. A few key games will be posted under the “Games” heading on the MCA website in the near future.
Final Standings
Performance Ratings