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 5 players including the youngest kindergartner.
The six most experienced players played a round-robin in which Colton Quirk scored a clear first with 4 points. Thomas Walthall and Diego Cowmey tied for 2nd-3rd with 3 points.
8th grader, Elliot Hayhurst, celebrated moving on to high school by rolling to a perfect 5-0 score in the 12 player “Giants” section. In an unusual finish, 5 players finished at 3 points to tie for 2nd-6th.
In the 10 person “Lions” group, Jackson Snaric finished at 4.5 giving up a draw to Joshua Walthall in round 1 before going on to four straight wins. Joshua finished at 3.5 to tie with Tam Dao for 2nd-3rd.
The event wrapped up with a 20-person simul featuring Greg “The Octopus” Nowak. Nowak scored big with 19 wins, but it was Colton Quirk again with the biggest win taking down the Octopus with the black pieces.