Montana Open 2026 - The End Of An Era

For the first time in 14 years, I will not compete in the Montana state championship. It's been a long and enjoyable run. I managed to score first place twice and second place a bunch of times. My scores of 3.5 in 2019 and 4 in 2020 were good enough to have finished first in almost any other year, but the peerless Dorje McPherron came out half a point ahead of me both times. The good news is that I am finally about to complete writing a book that I began working on long ago that describes my bittersweet experiences in life and in chess. I've thought of a great title but don't want to share it just yet because someone might poach it. I might try shopping it around for a publisher, but the publishing industry is so moribund that I'll likely wind up self-publishing it.

I can safely say that the people who will be competing in this year's championship deserve to be there. They study and ponder the game of chess. I don't do that. I flirt with chess. Flirting has worked well for me and gotten me everything I wanted (and more). Even though flirting didn't score me a spot in the championship this time, it gave me some memorable games.

In the first round I confronted a young man I had seen at previous tournaments in Bozeman but never had played before. He said his last name was complicated, so I wrote it on my scoresheet as just "M." He was good-natured and shared some laughs with me when we reviewed the game afterwards.

The second round proved frustrating because I had a strong position and a strong time advantage but threw it all away (something I have a preternatural ability to do). There was also some controversy because in the time scramble near the end I swear that we rapidly repeated a position three times, so I paused the clock to call a draw. The problem is that neither of us was recording moves at that point, and MCA President Kevin Kuehnel was trying to do so but couldn't keep up with our fast pace, so there was no written proof to support my claim. I had no choice but to start the clock again, and my position was getting weak enough that I concentrated too long and lost on time. What takes the sting out of it is that my young opponent is an amazing player who will likely go to the championship either this year or in the near future.

I took a bye in the third round despite knowing that it practically guaranteed that I would not qualify for the Closed. It was late; I was hungry; and I've been to the Closed plenty of times anyway. When I sat down to play in the fourth round, I confronted a young man whose face and name I vaguely remembered, and he reminded me that we had played once before. I hope he didn't take it personally because I've played so many games that the players often become a blur. 

The final round turned out to be much wilder than I expected. My opponent was a man from Tennessee who was on a sightseeing tour of Montana and decided to play in the Open. I blundered in the opening of our game and was down a pawn going into the endgame, but I love endgames and found a way to force a draw.