Chicago Open History Tournament

The Chicago Open History Tournament is an all-history tournament played at the University of Chicago on the same weekend as Chicago Open. It serves as a side event for Chicago Open, attracting players from the Chicago Open field.

It is usually played as a doubles tournament, with teams of two.

2006

In 2006, the tournament was written by Chris Frankel and titled the Mad King Ludwig Open. It featured rounds of 20 tossups and 20 bonuses. It was criticized for what some viewed as an excessive social history content and for running very late.

2007

In 2007, the tournament was written by Bruce Arthur and titled The Guns of August. It featured rounds of 15 tossups and no bonuses. The tournament was criticized for insufficient social history content and distributional imbalance.

2008

In 2008, the tournament was once again edited by Bruce Arthur, though this time with the help of several other writers, including Peter Austin, Chris Chiego, Andrew Wehrman, Kyle Haddad-Fonda, Billy Beyer, Seth Kendall and Jon Wong. The tournament was titled The July Crisis. It featured rounds of 16 tossups and 16 bonuses.

Post 2008

The future of the Chicago Open History Tournament is unclear. Shortly after the 2008 installment, Arthur announced he would not be editing the tournament in the future. Matt Weiner has called for the abolishment of the Friday night timeslot during Chicago Open Weekend, which was traditionally reserved for the History tournament. No history tournament took place in 2009.