Montana State Championship 2016 - Round 1
I am ecstatic to announce that I am the new Montana state champion, along with two other players who obtained the same high score of 3.5 out of 5 at the competition this past weekend. Since I defeated one of those players head-to-head, drew with the other, and sustained no losses in my other games, I do feel entitled to the mantle of champion for 2016-2017. But it was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, and the outcome was never certain.
In this first round I confronted a gentleman I had played in a tough match at the beginning of the year. This time I learned that he had lived in Spain for 20 years, so we had some friendly banter in Spanish before squaring off in the first round.