Twenty-nine players descended on the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Billings this past weekend for this season’s first tournament, the Big Sky Country Open. In the past, this tournament has been held in Butte, but the schedule was arranged differently for this season. The field was comprised of 18 adults and 11 juniors (<20) from Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Hamilton, Sidney, Casper, Sheridan, Cody, and Chicago.
The top prize was earned by expert-rated John Julian with 4.5/5, who recently moved to Billings from Spokane. He was held to a draw in the final round by Megan Chen 4/5 (Chicago), who is on a quest to play in all 50 states. Thomas Walthall (Mis) also finished 4/5 to secure a 2nd place tie with Megan. Megan did not lose and Thomas only lost to Brian Kuehl (Sheridan), an upset. Ted Hash (Bil) took home the biggest upset prize with his victory over Elizabeth Scott (Casper), a spread of 854 points.
Four juniors put together strong showings and finished with 3.5/5: Ben Curtis (Boz), Max DeFanti (Mis), Dustin Nichols (Cody), and Alex Karns (GF). This was DeFanti’s first tournament, which resulted in a provisional rating of 1667! Many of the mainstay players were absent, so it is good to see the younger generation coming out to compete.
This is likely the first time a game in 90 minutes, plus 30 second increment has been used in MT. This time control was used from round 2-5. There were some positive and negative comments about the time control, which incidentally is becoming very popular throughout the country. One game lasted 4 hours, but nearly all the rest were completed between 3-3.5 hours. Most importantly, there was not one single time scramble (blitz-off), so higher quality moves were being made until the bitter end.
The venue never disappoints and the coffee was definitely better than last year. The season will end where it began with the MT Open being held at the DoubleTree in early April. Thanks to all who made the trip compete. It was a fun and successful event.
Click here for the crosstable results.
