Schoessler, Sneeden, Skovron Tie at the St Patrick Open
The inaugural 2019 St. Patrick Open left a few feeling the luck o’ the Irish, and others green with envy! The event was held in Billings, MT the weekend of 3/16-17/2019 at the Mary Alice Fortin Room of the Billings Clinic (check Facebook for Photos) The top prize was shared amongst Tim Schoessler (WY), Jim Skovron (Great Falls), and newcomer Dustin Sneeden (Billings) with 4 points apiece. Thomas Walthall (Hamilton), Brandon Bedenbender (Great Falls), and Michael Troyer (Billings) shared the lower division prize with 2.5 points apiece. Thomas also scored the biggest upset prize by scoring a win over Scott Caldwell (Missoula) with a 657-point spread. Honorable mentions go to Chad Robinson over Ben Vogel (506 points) and Brandon Bedenbender over Mattson (428 points). Click here to view the USCF crosstable.
As the top seed, Tim had the toughest row to hoe, facing no opponent under 1670. He did not disappoint, winning all 3 rounds Saturday and drawing the final round against Jim after a 4th round bye, resulting in a 2074 tournament performance rating. Jim also had 3 wins, a bye, and a draw. Dustin, though provisionally rated, continues to score well against Class A-B players beating David Duke and Charlie Wittnam, with his only loss coming at the hands of Tim. Tim would not admit revenge but it must have felt good after a bitter defeat to Dustin in January!
Though our state champion is so often in the driver’s seat, Duke also cemented his reputation of being a very slippery defender. He withstood intense pressure from Michael Muller with 2 seconds left to secure the win in Rd 4. He also held the draw against Ben Vogel with 5 seconds remaining on his clock in Rd 3, despite an aired-out king in an awkward position on the queenside (with black). He only fell out of contention by losing to Dustin in Rd 5.
Thomas Walthall continues to improve rapidly. How many biggest upset prizes has this guy won? He beat Scott Caldwell with white in a Sozin/Sicilian in which he created a passed d-pawn and marched it to the 7th rank, only to see black give away a rook but there wasn’t much left to do. He secured a share of the money (under 1600) by holding off Mattson’s Nimzo-Indian in Rd 5, drawing and denying Dan some much needed Grand Prix points. The game was 49 moves and Stockfish 8 called it dead even for the final 20. Incidentally, Skovron has now taken over the Grand Prix lead with 49.6 points, with a dead heat for 2nd with Caldwell, Stacey, and Mattson at 37 points. There will be a lot at stake for the Closed Championship seeds at the upcoming MT Open in Bozeman.
There were many more exciting moments that could be commented on if one had the time and space. All in all, it was a fun and successful tournament with 22 players (3 juniors), in a great venue. The room had the bonus of a big screen for standings/pairings projection, as well as an elevated stage to honor our Board 1 players.
(contributed by Dan Mattson, Chief TD)