U.S. Women's Open Chess Championship

The U.S. Women's Open Championship is an open chess tournament that has been held irregularly. From 1934 through at least 1966 it was held in conjunction with the annual U.S. Open Chess Championship. After some years of inactivity, the event was reinstituted in 2009.

History

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From 1934 through 1950 and in 1954, the women's tournaments were held as a round-robin tournament in conjunction with the U.S. Open. From 1951 through 1978, with the exception of 1954, the women played in the U.S. Open with the title U.S. Women's Open Champion being awarded to the woman with the highest score.

After 1978, the title was not awarded until 2009. That year the event was held again with sixteen players in a six-round tournament, in conjunction with the U.S. Senior Open Chess Championship and two other tournaments. Chess Life incorrectly called it the first U.S. Women's Open Championship. The highest-placing US citizen qualified for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship.

The event was then not held until 2015, when it was held in conjunction with the National Open in Las Vegas. It has been held each year since then, except for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Winners

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Complete records of the Women's Open Championship are not available.

Year Location Champions
1934 Chicago Virginia Sheffield
1937 Chicago Jean M. Grau
1938 Boston Mona May Karff
1939 New York City Mona May Karff[1]
1948 Baltimore Mona May Karff
1950 Detroit Mona May Karff and Lucille Kellner
1951 Fort Worth, Texas Maxine Cutlip
1953 Milwaukee Eva Aronson
1954[2] New Orleans, Louisiana Gisela Kahn Gresser
1955 Long Beach, California Sonja Graf
1956 Oklahoma City Sonja Graf
1957 Cleveland Sonja Graf
1958 Rochester, Minnesota Kathryn Slater
1959 Omaha, Nebraska Sonja Graf
1960 St. Louis Lisa Lane
1961 San Francisco Eva Aronson
1962 San Antonio Kathryn Slater
1963 Chicago Kate Sillars
1964 Boston Kathryn Slater and Cecilia Rock
1965 Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Mary Bain and Kathryn Slater
1966 Seattle Mary Bain
1967 Atlanta Mary Bain
1968 Aspen, Colorado Marilyn Koput
1969 Lincoln, Nebraska Eva Aronson
1970 Boston Dinah Dobson
1971 Ventura, California Mabel Burlingame
1972 Atlantic City, New Jersey Ruth Donnelly
1973 Chicago Eva Aronson
1974 New York City Ruth Donnelly and Ruth Haring
1975 Lincoln, Nebraska Ruth Cardoso
1976 Fairfax, Virginia Diane Savereide
1977 Columbus, Ohio Ruth Orton (née Haring)
1978 Phoenix, Arizona Diane Savereide
2009 Tulsa, Oklahoma Nath Saheli[3]
2015 Las Vegas Simone Liao, Ramya Inapuri, Uyanga Byambaa, and Joanna Liu
2016 Las Vegas Vera Nebolsina
2017 Las Vegas Nazí Paikidze
2018 Las Vegas Saikhanchimeg Tsogtsaikhan
2019 Las Vegas Megan Lee
2021 Las Vegas Carla Heredia

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ 1939 was a three-way tie, Karff won playoff over Mary Bain and Dr. Helen Weissenstein.
  2. ^ 1954 was a separate round robin of 11 players, and the women's zonal tournament for that year. Gresser won 8–2. Mona Karff and Sonja Graf tied at 7–3, but Karff had more Sonnenborn-Berger points and qualified with Gresser to play in the Women's World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament.
  3. ^ Sixteen players participated in a six-round Swiss-system tournament. First-place finisher Saheli of India was not eligible to play in the U.S. Women's Championship so the qualifying spot went to second-place finisher WFM Iryna Zenyuk.

References

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  • Harkness, Kenneth (1967). Official Chess Handbook. David McKay. p. 287. LCCN 66013085. (History and winners list of the tournament through 1966.)
  • "2016 US Chess Yearbook" (PDF). uschess.org. 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2021. For years 1967–1971 and 1974–1978, U.S. Open prize lists from Chess Life were consulted.
  • Root, Alexey (January 2010). "2009 U.S. Women's Open: Opening Up". Chess Life (1): 34–36.
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