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. Its most recent edition was edited by Matt Bollinger.
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 recent years, the tournament has been a full round-robin among all participating teams, which can last well into the evening. 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, including a 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.
Tournament
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Champion
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Second Place
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Stats
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Editor or Writer
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1997 Virginia Open
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?
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?
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?
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Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
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1998 Virginia Open
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Eric Hillemann, Tom Waters
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Dave Hamilton, John Nam, Julie Singer, Maureen Smith
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Stats
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Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
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1999 Chicago Open
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Tom Waters, Albert Whited
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Eric Hillemann, R. Hentzel
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Stats
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Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
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2000 Chicago Open
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R. Hentzel, Eric Hillemann, Emily Pike
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Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Dave Goodman, Dave Hamilton, John Nam
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?
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Andrew Yaphe & Subash Maddipoti (editors)
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2001 Chicago Open
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Andrew Yaphe, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Dave Hamilton, Mike Angel
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Adam Kemezis, Paul Litvak, Ben Heller, Noel Erinjeri
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?
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Subash Maddipoti (editor)
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2002 Chicago Open
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Eric Hillemann, R. Hentzel, Emily Pike
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Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Paul Litvak, Ryan McClarren, Ed Cohn
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?
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Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
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2003 Chicago Open
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Chris Borglum, Kelly McKenzie, Raj Dhuwalia, Seth Kendall
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Paul Litvak, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Andrew Yaphe, Ben Heller
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?
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Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
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2004 Chicago Open
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Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe, Paul Litvak
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Mike Sorice, Matt Weiner, Sudheer Potru, Andrew Ullsperger
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[1]
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Subash Maddipoti (editor)
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2005 Chicago Open
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Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Matt Weiner
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Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe, Adam Kemezis, Wesley Matthews
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Stats
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Subash Maddipoti (wrote tournament)
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2006 Chicago Open
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Dave Rappaport, Will Turner, Matt Lafer, Andrew Yaphe
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Ryan Westbrook, Eric Kwartler, Jerry Vinokurov, Charles Meigs
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Stats
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Chris Romero & Ezequiel Berdichevsky (editors)
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2007 Chicago Open
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Sudheer Potru, Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Matt Weiner
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Matt Lafer, Ray Luo, Jerry Vinokurov, Ryan Westbrook
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Stats
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Seth Teitler (editor)
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2008 Chicago Open
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Jonathan Magin, Eric Mukherjee, Jerry Vinokurov, Matt Weiner
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Selene Koo, Mike Sorice, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe
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Stats
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Ryan Westbrook (editor)
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2009 Chicago Open
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Andrew Hart, Rob Carson, Brendan Byrne, Matt Weiner
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Ted Gioia, Dallas Simons, Jerry Vinokurov, Eric Mukherjee
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Stats
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Eric Kwartler et al (editors)
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2010 Chicago Open
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Dallas Simons, Richard Mason, Kevin Koai, Matt Weiner
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Bruce Arthur, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo, Jonathan Magin
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Stats
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Jerry Vinokurov et al (editors)
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2011 Chicago Open
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Andrew Hart, Jeff Hoppes, Selene Koo, Seth Teitler
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Matt Weiner, Matt Bollinger, John Lawrence, Gautam Kandlikar
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Stats
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Ryan Westbrook et al (editors)
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2012 Chicago Open
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Matt Bollinger, Eric Mukherjee, John Lawrence, Chris Ray
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four-way tie; by PPG Jeff Hoppes, Gautam Kandlikar, Andrew Hart, Mike Sorice
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[2]
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Ryan Westbrook, with Mike Bentley et al. (editors)
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2013 Chicago Open
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John Lawrence, Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo
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four-way tie; by PPG Rob Carson, Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, Jerry Vinokurov
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[3]
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Matt Bollinger et al. (editors)
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