Montana Open 2025

After floundering for the past several tournaments, I finally got back into the zone and played well at the Montana Open, scoring 4 points and guaranteeing myself a spot at the 2025 state championship. I suffered no losses and could have gone for a full win of the tournament in the final round when I reached the top board. However, the game was fairly even and could have dragged out for another couple of hours, and I preferred to hit the road to make it back to Missoula in time for dinner and a celebratory glass (or perhaps a bottle) of wine. It remains a mystery as to why I was thinking so clearly during this tournament, especially because there has been a lot on my mind lately, but it's good enough to know that moments of clarity remain possible.

In the first round I faced someone who had given me a tough game last year at the Thaw. This time, he made mistakes early in the game and handed me an easier win than I expected.

In the second round I faced someone I'd never played against before, but who scored an upset against my friend Dan McCourt (rated in the 1600s) in the first round and who scored another upset against Chad Engan (rated in the 1700s) last October. He played a solid game that motivated me to make patient, boring moves until an opportunity presented itself. Luckily, it did.

After taking my customary bye on Saturday evening, I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to confront the top seed in the tournament, John Julian. John is an expert-level player who, like me, is an attorney who has seen his rating slip in recent years (his rating is now what mine was two years ago, in the low 1900s). On the two prior occasions we played each other, he won once and drew me once, so I didn't have high hopes of winning. We discussed some of the cases we've been working on and, when it was time to start, we dove into it. He threw the London system at me, which was worrisome because I've been having trouble with this opening lately. Almost as a lark, I decided to play a second move I never had tried before: d5. What followed was 100% improvisation on my part, just like the old days when I was tilting at windmills in the Octopus's club in Missoula. We got into a very tricky endgame in which I made another counterintuitive move: exchanging off my only knight to keep my only bishop. It seemed the only way for me to survive. Wouldn't you know it, I found a way to win in the last few seconds! This was a sweet victory and a reminder to keep the spirit of Quixote going. The last few moves are my best guess because I had stopped recording by then.

With 3.5 points under my belt going into the final round, I knew I was a shoo-in for the state championship because my score would preserve my spot in first or second place for Grand Prix points (either one of which is sufficient). Confronting me was a young man whose rating is only in the 1500s, but who had defeated every player he had faced so far. He was poised to make a clean sweep of the tournament if he beat me. I had a few things working in my favor, such as that I was playing white and have many years of experience. I also knew that if I offered him a draw at some point, he would likely accept it because he would still be the winner of the tournament and would qualify for the state championship as well. As we got into it, I played my usual Stonewall in a cautious manner to avoid opening up the board too much. The fewer options he had, the better, and I could focus on nurturing my position. We reached a point where I was gaining some momentum, so I threw out the draw offer, and he accepted it. Maybe next time I'll play this opening in a more lively fashion.