Chicago Open

The CO traveling trophy, introduced in 2014, as held by Matt Bollinger.

Chicago Open (or CO) is a summer open tournament held annually at the University of Chicago, generally occurring in the last week of July or first week of August. Its most distinguishing feature is its extremely high difficulty (usually more difficult than the year's ICT or ACF Nationals), which usually makes the Chicago Open set the most challenging of the calendar year.

The first Chicago Open was held in 1999 as the successor to Virginia Open, a similar tournament held at Virginia in 1997 and 1998. After many years under the stewardship of first Andrew Yaphe and then Subash Maddipotti, its editorship has rotated based on the interest and availability of well-regarded editors and players, with each new editor or editing team approved by its predecessor. After some early house-written events, CO has established itself as a true packet-submission event, for which every participating team must write a full packet.

A true open tournament, Chicago Open attracts current college players, retired or graduated players, and, occasionally, ambitious high school players. Participants generally play on mixed teams not limited by school affiliation. In most years, the tournament has been a full round-robin among all participating teams, which can last well into the evening; the 2016 and 2017 events ran a shorter schedule using preliminary brackets and crossover games due to the demands of a growing field. The combination of the tournament's extreme difficulty and deep field makes the assembly of a winning CO team one of the most challenging accomplishments in quizbowl.

Chicago Open typically occurs alongside several side events; these have included a semi-regular Trash tournament and subject tournaments in science, history, and literature. The number and placement of CO side events is an open question for the future as the main tournament gets longer and more grueling; since 2011, the main tournament has stood alone on Saturday.

In 2014, Andrew Hart introduced a traveling trophy (pictured left), which some member of the winning team gets to keep until the next year's CO is held.

Table of Champions

Tournament	Champion	Second Place	Stats	Editor or Writer
1997 Virginia Open	?	?	?	Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
1998 Virginia Open	Eric Hillemann, Tom Waters	Dave Hamilton, John Nam, Julie Singer, Maureen Smith	Stats	Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
1999 Chicago Open	Tom Waters, Albert Whited	Eric Hillemann, R. Hentzel	Stats	Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
2000 Chicago Open	R. Hentzel, Eric Hillemann, Emily Pike	Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Dave Goodman, Dave Hamilton, John Nam	?	Andrew Yaphe & Subash Maddipoti (editors)
2001 Chicago Open	Andrew Yaphe, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Dave Hamilton, Mike Angel	Adam Kemezis, Paul Litvak, Ben Heller, Noel Erinjeri	?	Subash Maddipoti (editor)
2002 Chicago Open	Eric Hillemann, R. Hentzel, Emily Pike	Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Paul Litvak, Ryan McClarren, Ed Cohn	?	Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
2003 Chicago Open	Chris Borglum, Kelly McKenzie, Raj Dhuwalia, Seth Kendall	Paul Litvak, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Andrew Yaphe, Ben Heller	?	Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
2004 Chicago Open	Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe, Paul Litvak	Mike Sorice, Matt Weiner, Sudheer Potru, Andrew Ullsperger	[1]	Subash Maddipoti (editor)
2005 Chicago Open	Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Matt Weiner	Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe, Adam Kemezis, Wesley Matthews	Stats	Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
2006 Chicago Open	Dave Rappaport, Will Turner, Matt Lafer, Andrew Yaphe	Ryan Westbrook, Eric Kwartler, Jerry Vinokurov, Charles Meigs	Stats	Chris Romero & Ezequiel Berdichevsky (editors)
2007 Chicago Open	Sudheer Potru, Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Matt Weiner	Matt Lafer, Ray Luo, Jerry Vinokurov, Ryan Westbrook	Stats	Seth Teitler (editor)
2008 Chicago Open	Jonathan Magin, Eric Mukherjee, Jerry Vinokurov, Matt Weiner	Selene Koo, Mike Sorice, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe	Stats	Ryan Westbrook (head editor)
2009 Chicago Open	Andrew Hart, Rob Carson, Brendan Byrne, Matt Weiner	Ted Gioia, Dallas Simons, Jerry Vinokurov, Eric Mukherjee	Stats	Eric Kwartler (head editor), Gautam Kandlikar, Trevor Davis, Wesley Matthews, Trygve Meade
2010 Chicago Open	Dallas Simons, Richard Mason, Kevin Koai, Matt Weiner	Bruce Arthur, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo, Jonathan Magin	Stats	Jerry Vinokurov (head editor), Shantanu Jha, Hannah Kirsch, Andy Watkins
2011 Chicago Open	Andrew Hart, Jeff Hoppes, Selene Koo, Seth Teitler	Matt Weiner, Matt Bollinger, John Lawrence, Gautam Kandlikar	Stats	Ryan Westbrook et al (editors)
2012 Chicago Open	Matt Bollinger, Eric Mukherjee, John Lawrence, Chris Ray	four-way tie; by PPG Jeff Hoppes, Gautam Kandlikar, Andrew Hart, Mike Sorice	[2]	Ryan Westbrook and Mike Bentley (head editors)
2013 Chicago Open	John Lawrence, Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo	four-way tie; by PPG Rob Carson, Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, Jerry Vinokurov	[3]	Matt Bollinger (head editor), Kevin Koai, lots of science people, Matt Jackson
2014 Chicago Open	Matt Bollinger, Evan Adams, Tommy Casalaspi, Eric Mukherjee	Matt Jackson, John Lawrence, Matt Weiner, Billy Busse	[4]	Andrew Hart (head editor), Ike Jose, Los Dos Kandlikars, Austin Brownlow, Jacob Reed
2015 Chicago Open	Matt Jackson, Matt Bollinger, Auroni Gupta, Tommy Casalaspi	Jordan Brownstein, John Lawrence, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo	[5]	Jerry Vinokurov, Eric Mukherjee, Aaron Rosenberg, Zeke Berdichevsky, Jonathan Magin, and Rebecca Maxfield
2016 Chicago Open	Jordan Brownstein, Eric Mukherjee, Will Nediger, Jacob Reed	tie; by PPG Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, Brian McPeak, Chris Ray	Stats	John Lawrence, Matt Jackson, Mike Cheyne, Aaron Rosenberg, Adam Silverman, Mike Bentley, Jake Sundberg, and Shan Kothari
2017 Chicago Open	Will Alston, Matt Bollinger, Auroni Gupta, Will Nediger	tie; by PPG Joey Goldman, Jonathan Magin, Jacob Reed, Matt Weiner	Stats	Ike Jose (head editor), Billy Busse, Ryan Westbrook, Jason Thompson

Victories by Player

Number of Victories	Players
One Win	Albert Whited, Dave Hamilton, Mike Angel, Chris Borglum, Kelly McKenzie, Raj Dhuwalia, Seth Kendall, Paul Litvak, Will Turner, Dave Rappaport, Matt Lafer,Sudheer Potru, Jerry Vinokurov, Jonathan Magin, Brendan Byrne, Rob Carson, Dallas Simons, Richard Mason, Kevin Koai, Chris Ray, Evan Adams, Matt Jackson, Jordan Brownstein, Jacob Reed
Two Wins	Tom Waters, R. Hentzel, Emily Pike, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Andrew Hart, Selene Koo, John Lawrence, Tommy Casalaspi, Auroni Gupta, Will Nediger
Three Wins	Eric Hillemann, Andrew Yaphe, Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler
Four Wins	Eric Mukherjee, Matt Bollinger
Five Wins	Matt Weiner

Trivia

To the dismay of editors who labored over finals packets, a team has cleared the field at every Chicago Open from 2012 onwards. It is unknown when or how this streak will be broken.