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 in the Chicago metropolitan area, generally occurring in the last week of July or first week of August. Its most distinguishing feature is its extremely high difficulty (far more difficult than the year's ICT or ACF Nationals), which usually makes Chicago Open the most challenging all-subject set 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 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. Despite many long-graduated individuals making an annual trip to CO for the only tournament they still regularly play, 2021 was the first year since 2002 in which the winning team contained no players who were eligible, active participants on a college quizbowl team during the preceding academic year. In most years, the tournament has been a full round-robin among all participating teams, which can last 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 11pm). 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, literature, and, more recently, a variety of arts events. Since 2011, the main tournament has stood alone on Saturday.

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

Due to changes in room reservation convenience, each CO that has happened from 2018 onward has been held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, rather than its presumptive home in the city proper from 1999-2017 at the University of Chicago. It remains to be seen whether this change of venue is permanent. Jocular references to recent instances of the tournament as "Chicanston Open" or "Evanston Open" are largely discouraged.

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)
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 et al (editors)
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)
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, lots of science people, 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, 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, Matt Jackson, 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 and Jacob Reed, with 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

* 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), Matt Jackson (2015), 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)
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), Will Nediger (2016–17), Jordan Brownstein (2016, 2021)
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)
Four Wins	Eric Mukherjee (2008, 2012, 2014, 2016)
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.