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.
Hiatus
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 or 2010
2011
In 2011, Bruce organized a Guerilla History Doubles, with Kyle Haddad-Fonda serving as the redactor. A team of Jeff Hoppes and Chris Ray defeated Matt Weiner and Guy Tabachnick in a finals match. It was the last CO History event to be run on a Friday night. No stats survive.
2012
A sequel Guerilla History Doubles was run in 2012, with Kyle once again serving as redactor. The event was moved to Sunday, improving the logistical situation. A team of Jeff Hoppes and Bruce Arthur went undefeated to win the torunament. [Stats]
2013
Marshall Steinbaum served as head editor of the 2013 incarnation, which was titled Urgent Call for Unity, and which featured packets of 16 tossups and 16 bonuses. A team of Jeff Hoppes and Ankit Aggarwal defeated Matt Bollinger and Chris Ray in the finals [Stats] following a truly idiotic tournament format in which teams were eliminated by a single loss yet prelim brackets were constructed randomly without regards to separating the top teams.
2014
The 2014 incarnation was titled 3M, after its three writers Eric Mukherjee, Mik Larsen, and Mike Cheyne. A team of Jeff Hoppes and Andrew Hart defeated Matt Weiner and Dan Puma in the finals. [Prelims] [Combined]