US Open Chess Championship
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The U.S. Open Championship is an
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national
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
championship that has been held in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
annually since 1900. The top American player usually qualifies for the U.S. Chess Championship.


History

The tournament was originally the championship of the Western Chess Association, and was called the Western Open. In 1934, the Western Chess Association became the American Chess Federation and the tournament became the American Chess Federation congress. In 1939, that organization merged into the
United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...
(USCF) and the tournament became the U.S. Open. In early years the tournament was usually small, and most years play was conducted as
round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...
. In some years it had to be divided into preliminary and final sections. It grew larger starting in 1934, necessitating use of different formats. In 1946, the
Swiss System A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...
was used for preliminary rounds, and in 1947 and subsequent years the tournament was held as a single section paired by the Swiss System. For many years, the tournament had 12 or 13 rounds and lasted two weeks. After experimentation with various less-demanding formats, in recent years it has usually been nine rounds; the 2015 tournament was nine rounds in nine days. Tournament participation grew through the 1950s and 1960s.
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1953 had 181 entrants, setting a new record for the tournament.
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
1957 had 184 players, and San Francisco 1961 set another attendance record with 198 players. The 1963 Open at
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had 266 entries, making it the largest chess tournament held in the United States to that time. The tourney was slightly smaller at
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in 1964, with a field of 229. The 1983 Open at
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was the largest ever, at 836 official entries; it also featured the participation of
Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Bor ...
, who had played in the last two World Championship matches. In the 2000s, the fields were over 400 to 500 entries. The tournament began in some editions to decline both in attendance and importance, and often many winners are involved in a tie for first, especially since the mid 1990s. The cash prizes awarded were large for their time and added to the tournament's popularity. In 1962, the entry fee was $20, with a first prize of $1,000, second prize $500, third $300, fourth $200, fifth $100, sixth through tenth $50 and eleventh through fifteenth $25. The Women's Open Champion won $200, and the women's runner-up $100. Additional cash prizes were awarded to the top women, the top junior, and for the best scores in the
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, A, B, and C classes. The 2024 guaranteed prize fund was $60,000, with $10,000 for first place.


Winners

:


See also

* U.S. Women's Open Chess Championship *
U.S. Women's Chess Championship Following are the results of the U.S. Women's Chess Championship from 1937 to date. The tournament determines the woman chess champion of the United States. List of U.S. Women's Chess Champions *1937 Adele Rivero *1938 Mona May Karff *1940 Ade ...
* U.S. Chess Championship *
American Chess Congress The American Chess Congress was a series of chess tournaments held in the United States, a predecessor to the current U.S. Chess Championship. It had nine editions, the first played in October 1857 and the last in August 1923. First American C ...


References

* (History and winners list of the tournament through 1966.) * McCrary, John.
Early Predecessors of the U.S. Chess Federation
. ''World Chess Hall of Fame.'' Retrieved February 22, 2023. * (winners list) * (winners and location list 1939-1979) * * (details of the 1962 Open)
2007 results
at uschess.org {{Chess tournaments Chess national championships Chess in the United States 1900 establishments in Minnesota Recurring sporting events established in 1900 1900 in chess