One of the more interesting performances on First Night in Missoula, Montana was as open chess tournament where anyone could sit down and play.  The only stipulation was that you had to play a local chess master known as "The Octopus."  He is named as such because of his amazing ability to play many games of chess simultaneously--as many as 50 at a time according to the program.  So any time there was a free spot at the table a person cold sit down and set up their pieces and "the Octopus" would come around to make his move, never taking more than 15 seconds on any one turn.  When I saw him at 10 p.m. he had been playing for six hours and was playing 19 games at a time.  The score was: Octopus 70, everyone else 4.

January 5, 2001

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"The Octopus (left) makes a move as he works his way around 19 simultaneous games of Chess"