Twenty-nine players descended on the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Billings this past weekend for this season’s first tournament, the Big Sky Country Open. In the past, this tournament has been held in Butte, but the schedule was arranged differently for this season. The field was comprised of 18 adults and 11 juniors (<20) from Billings,…

Rasul Nazriev took home the top honors to win his first MT Chess Championship! Rasul got off to a slow start, losing a miniature (20 move) Sicilian to Dan Mattson (Bil). Rasul then went on to rattle off 4 straight victories to secure the win. Rasul had a very dominant season, winning several tournaments as…

The 87th Montana Open was held in Missoula April 2-3. It was well attended with 39 players including quite a few new players who performed quite well. We’d like to welcome them and sincerely hope they continue with their chess careers. Expert Michael Murray from Washington won overall 1st with Wilton Strickland Daniel Mattson, Darren…

Rasul Nazriev edged out a youngster and a tournament newcomer to win the 4th Annual St. Patrick Open this past weekend in downtown Billings, MT. Rasul (Mis) finished with 4.5/5 ahead of Matteo Nero (Boz) and Jorell Snowden (Bil) with 4/5 pts each. He beat both the top seed and the 4th seed. The event…

The 2021 Turkey Open returned after a year’s hiatus and was very well attended with 43 players. The high turnout allowed for a $25 increase to all prizes along with the addition of $25 2nd place Class prizes. Spokane Expert Michael Cambareri claimed 1st with a perfect score. There was a 5-way tie for 2nd…

The 2021 Big Sky Country Open took place at the Comfort Inn in Butte, MT over the weekend of September 25-26, 2021 and attracted 23 players. A whopping 8 of them were unrated – over a fourth of the field!  Some  of the unrated players had superb showings: 2021 Big Sky Country Open Final Table…

Congratulations to Dustin Sneeden who won the Billings Chess Club’s first rated blitz tournament of the fall with a 10/10 score! Josh Brown came in second with 8.5. Ten players gathered at McCormick‘s café in downtown Billings on Tuesday, August 31, for 10 rounds of G/5 blitz chess. The next event will take place in…

Congratulations to Benjamin Vogel of Bozeman on winning the 2021 Montana Closed State Championship.  Full Report and photos will be published soon.

The six competitors for the 2021 Montana State Championship are as follows: 1) current state champion Dorje McPherron; 2) former state champion James Skovron; 3) former state champion Wilton Strickland; 4) winner of the 2021 Grand Prix, Rasul Nazriev; 5) winner of the 2021 Open, Ben Vogel; and 6) co-winner of the 2021 Open, Scott…

The 86th Montana Chess Open, played in Helena on May 22 and 23, drew 49 players from a 4-state region including 17 unrated individuals, and an Expert (2000) and a Master (2202) rated players. A half point separated the two top finishers with 4.5 points – Scott Caldwell (1752) and Ben Vogel (1823) – from…

The 3rd Annual St. Patrick Open took place 3/13-14 at the Doubletree Hotel in Billings, MT and was a resounding success! This was the first over-the-board tournament in MT since the 2020 MT Closed, which was played last August. Thirty players from 4 states attended, including visiting IM Justin Sarkar from NY. Players also hailed…

The 4th Annual Magic City New Year’s Invitational took place this past Friday and Saturday at Legacy Trucking in Billings, MT. Eleven players came out to compete armed with face masks and hand sanitizer. Unfortunately, the odd number forced several players to accept a bye. Josh Brown (Billings) took home the first prize by winning…

Joshua Walthall pulled off the upset over Molly Tefft in the final round to win the Big Sky Country Scholastic (9/19/2020) on chess.com. Congratulations to 1st Place Joshua (Stevi Middle School) and 2nd Place Molly (Maine).  A huge congratulations to 3rd Place Samuel Harmon (Helena Home School), who is only in the 2nd Grade!  Thank…

  Final standings from the Montana state championship are: Dorje McPherron (4.5 points) Wilton Strickland (4 points) Darren Stacey (2.5 points) Daniel Mattson and Thomas Walthall (1.5 points) Kevin Kuehnel (1 point) Congratulations to Dorje for repeating as the Montana State Champion.  Photos and Matches will be posted soon.