Turkey Open 2024
The annual Turkey Open has become the biggest event in Montana chess. Not only does it attract players from other states, but in recent years it has drawn the media, donations for prizes, and visiting grandmasters. I was looking forward to it because I had a good tournament in Great Falls last month and hoped to build on that, but I turned out to be the turkey this time. I couldn't find any decent moves on the first day and suffered a draw and a loss. After that I still had to take a bye for the third round because I was hosting a Día de los Muertos party at my house for the evening, so I kept my drinking to a minimum and hoped to bounce back the following day. Luckily, I did and wound up with a plus score of 3 points, but I still made it much harder than necessary by (again) missing good moves and forcing myself to work miracles in two time scrambles. I'll share those two games because the ones from the first day are better left forgotten.
As I sat down on Sunday morning to play round 4, I saw that I was paired with a middle schooler whose rating was only in the 700s. This didn't put me at ease, though, because I know from experience that ratings for young players are deceptive and do not reflect the players' rapidly growing strength. My suspicions were confirmed by another young player who warned me that my opponent had a rating in the 1800s online, so I settled in and looked forward to a challenging game. He sure gave me one. As my time bled away he offered me a draw twice, which I rejected, and with mere minutes on the clock I found a way to win (despite missing a move that could have won much more easily).
In the final round I faced David Griffin, a friend who was visiting from Spokane. We've played each other a couple of times in the past, and he always wound up resigning when I thought his position was still playable. This time, he kept on playing and forced me into an even bigger time scramble than the one from round 4. With mere seconds on my clock, I again missed a winning move and had to pull off a miracle. The only reason I did was that I had a knight to accompany my rook. A knight makes anything possible for me, especially in the endgame.
