Chicago Open

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The (now lost) CO traveling trophy, introduced in 2014, as held by Matt Bollinger.

Chicago Open (or CO) is a summer open tournament held annually in the Chicago metropolitan area, generally occurring in the last week of July or first week of August. Its most distinguishing features are its extremely high difficulty (often more difficult than the year's ICT or ACF Nationals) and its extremely competitive field, which usually make Chicago Open the most challenging all-subject set of the calendar year.

A true open tournament, Chicago Open attracts current college players, retired or graduated players, and, occasionally, ambitious high school (or middle school) players. Participants generally play on mixed teams not limited by school affiliation.

Because the CO field draws a field from across the continent (and sometimes the UK), it is typicaly not mirrored elsewhere. From 2005 to 2009, Berkeley hosted a small West Coast mirror called BASQUE; smaller mid-Atlantic mirrors existed at various points in the early to mid-2000s [1].

History

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 packet.

From 1999 to 2017, every instance of CO was hosted at The University of Chicago. Due to changes in room reservation policy, the tournament moved to Northwestern University for the first time in 2018 and has been held there ever since. Jocular references to recent instances of the tournament as "Chicanston Open" or "Evanston Open" are largely discouraged.

In most years through 2015 (except 2009), the tournament was a full round-robin among all participating teams, which often lasted well into the evening. Since 2016, the event has run a shorter schedule using preliminary brackets and crossover games due to the demands of a growing field. (This did not, however, stop the 2018 iteration from going past 11 p.m., or the 2022 iteration from going slightly past midnight.)

Unusual prizes

In 2014, Andrew Hart introduced a traveling trophy, which the aim being that a member of the winning team would get to keep until the next year's CO is held. It disappeared quickly and its current whereabouts are uncertain.

Four stuffed Blåhaj awarded at CO 2023

In 2023, tournament director Em Gunter awarded a small stuffed Blåhaj shark to each member of the winning team.


Side events

Chicago Open typically occurs alongside several side events; these have included a roughly biennial trash tournament and subject tournaments in science, history, literature, and, more recently, a variety of arts events. Since 2011, the main tournament has stood alone on Saturday, with all side events occurring on Sunday.


Table of Champions

Tournament Field size Champion Second Place Stats Editor or Writer
1997 Virginia Open ? ? ? ? Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
1998 Virginia Open 13 Eric Hillemann, Tom Waters Dave Hamilton, John Nam, Julie Singer, Maureen Smith Stats Andrew Yaphe (wrote tournament)
1999 Chicago Open 14 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 11 Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe, Paul Litvak Mike Sorice, Matt Weiner, Sudheer Potru, Andrew Ullsperger Stats Subash Maddipoti (head editor) with Ezequiel Berdichevsky
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 13 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 9 Sudheer Potru, Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, Matt Weiner Matt Lafer, Ray Luo, Jerry Vinokurov, Ryan Westbrook Stats Seth Teitler (head editor) with Ezequiel Berdichevsky
2008 Chicago Open 17 Jonathan Magin, Eric Mukherjee, Jerry Vinokurov, Matt Weiner Selene Koo, Mike Sorice, Seth Teitler, Andrew Yaphe Stats Ryan Westbrook (head editor), Matt Keller
2009 Chicago Open 14 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 15 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 15 Andrew Hart, Jeff Hoppes, Selene Koo, Seth Teitler Matt Weiner, Matt Bollinger, John Lawrence, Gautam Kandlikar Stats Ryan Westbrook (head editor), Mia Nussbaum, SteveJon Guth, Eric Mukherjee (contributor)
2012 Chicago Open 17 Matt Bollinger, Eric Mukherjee, John Lawrence, Chris Ray four-way tie; by PPG Jeff Hoppes, Gautam Kandlikar, Andrew Hart, Mike Sorice Stats Ryan Westbrook and Mike Bentley (head editors), Aaron Rosenberg, SteveJon Guth, Ted Gioia
2013 Chicago Open 17 John Lawrence, Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo four-way tie; by PPG Rob Carson, Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, Jerry Vinokurov Stats Matt Bollinger (head editor), Kevin Koai, Sinan Ulusoy, Libo Zeng, Sriram Pendyala, Dennis Loo, Matt Jackson
2014 Chicago Open 17 Matt Bollinger, Evan Adams, Tommy Casalaspi, Eric Mukherjee Matt Jackson, John Lawrence, Matt Weiner, Billy Busse Stats Andrew Hart (head editor), Ike Jose, Los Dos Kandlikars, Austin Brownlow, Jacob Reed
2015 Chicago Open 17 Matt Jackson, Matt Bollinger, Auroni Gupta, Tommy Casalaspi Jordan Brownstein, John Lawrence, Seth Teitler, Selene Koo Stats Jerry Vinokurov (de facto head editor), Eric Mukherjee, Aaron Rosenberg, Zeke Berdichevsky, Jonathan Magin, and Rebecca Maxfield
2016 Chicago Open 20 Jordan Brownstein, Eric Mukherjee, Will Nediger, Jacob Reed tie; by PPG Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, Brian McPeak, Chris Ray Stats John Lawrence (de facto co-head editor), Matt Jackson (de facto co-head editor), Mike Cheyne, Aaron Rosenberg, Adam Silverman, Mike Bentley, Jake Sundberg, and Shan Kothari
2017 Chicago Open 18 Will Alston, Matt Bollinger, Auroni Gupta, Will Nediger tie; by PPG Joey Goldman, Jonathan Magin, Matt Weiner, Jacob Reed Stats Ike Jose (head editor), Billy Busse, Ryan Westbrook, Jason Thompson
2018 Chicago Open 22 Matt Bollinger, Shan Kothari, Adam Silverman, Matt Weiner Ike Jose, John Lawrence, Jakob Myers, Andrew Wang Stats Auroni Gupta (head editor), Jacob Reed, Will Holub-Moorman, Jordan Brownstein, Seth Teitler, Eliza Grames, Joey Goldman
2019 Chicago Open 20 Adam S. Fine, Auroni Gupta, Jakob Myers, and Clark Smith Mike Bentley, Matt Bollinger, Mike Cheyne, and Shan Kothari Stats Chris Ray (co-head editor), Jacob Reed (co-head editor), Alston Boyd, Will Holub-Moorman, Wonyoung Jang, Michael Kearney, Jonathan Magin, and Sriram Pendyala
2021 Chicago Open 18 Jordan Brownstein, Matt Bollinger, Ophir Lifshitz, and Andrew Wang tie; by PPG Matt Weiner, Aseem Keyal, Taylor Harvey, Rahul Keyal Stats Will Alston (head editor), Ike Jose, Itamar Naveh-Benjamin, Jonathen Settle, Eric Mukherjee, and Brad Maclaine
2022 Chicago Open 27 Jordan Brownstein, Nick Jensen, Taylor Harvey, Jonathen Settle Matt Bollinger, Natan Holtzman, Aseem Keyal, Daniel Hothem (feat. Carsten Gehring) Stats Austin Brownlow (co-head editor), Kurtis Droge (co-head editor), Eddie Kim, Young Fenimore Lee, Sameer Apte, Shan Kothari, Vincent Du, Ashish Subramanian, and Alistair Gray
2023 Chicago Open 20 Jordan Brownstein, Matt Jackson, Geoffrey Chen, Will Nediger Nick Jensen, Aseem Keyal, Tracy Mirkin, Adam Fine Stats Alex Fregeau (co-head editor), Henry Atkins (co-head editor), Arya Karthik, David Bass, Itamar Naveh-Benjamin, Gerhardt Hinkle, Dan Ni, Alistair Gray, Davis Everson-Rose, Jacob Egol, Ganon Evans, Victor Pavao, Kevin Thomas, Ryan Rosenberg, Caleb Kendrick, various writers [2]

* Tournament held at Northwestern
Broken stats link

Victories by Player

Number of Victories Players
One Win Albert Whited (1999), Mike Angel (2001), Dave Hamilton (2001), Chris Borglum (2003), Raj Dhuwalia (2003), Seth Kendall (2003), Kelly McKenzie (2003), Paul Litvak (2004), Matt Lafer (2006), Dave Rappaport (2006), Will Turner (2006), Sudheer Potru (2007), Jonathan Magin (2008), Jerry Vinokurov (2008), Brendan Byrne (2009), Rob Carson (2009), Kevin Koai (2010), Richard Mason (2010), Dallas Simons (2010), Chris Ray (2012), Evan Adams (2014), , Jacob Reed (2016), Will Alston (2017), Shan Kothari (2018), Adam Silverman (2018), Adam S. Fine (2019), Jakob Myers (2019), Clark Smith (2019), Andrew Wang (2021), Ophir Lifshitz (2021), Nick Jensen (2022), Taylor Harvey (2022), Jonathen Settle (2022), Geoffrey Chen (2023)
Two Wins Tom Waters (1998–99), R. Hentzel (2000, 2002), Emily Pike (2000, 2002), Ezequiel Berdichevsky (2001, 2005), Mike Sorice (2005, 2007), Andrew Ullsperger (2005, 2007), Andrew Hart (2009, 2011), Selene Koo (2011, 2013), John Lawrence (2012–13), Tommy Casalaspi (2014–15), Matt Jackson (2015, 2023)
Three Wins Eric Hillemann (1998, 2000, 2002), Andrew Yaphe (2001, 2004, 2006), Jeff Hoppes (2004, 2011, 2013), Seth Teitler (2004, 2011, 2013), Auroni Gupta (2015, 2017, 2019), Will Nediger (2016-17, 2023)
Four Wins Eric Mukherjee (2008, 2012, 2014, 2016); Jordan Brownstein (2016, 2021-23)
Five Wins
Six Wins Matt Weiner (2005, 2007–10, 2018), Matt Bollinger (2012, 2014–15, 2017–18, 2021)

Trivia

To the dismay of editors who labored over finals packets, a team cleared the field at every Chicago Open from 2012 through 2017.