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

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

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

YearLocationChampions
1934ChicagoVirginia Sheffield
1937ChicagoJean M. Grau
1938BostonMona May Karff
1939New York CityMona May Karff[1]
1948BaltimoreMona May Karff
1950DetroitMona May Karff and Lucille Kellner
1951Fort Worth, TexasMaxine Cutlip
1953MilwaukeeEva Aronson
1954[2] New Orleans, LouisianaGisela Kahn Gresser
1955Long Beach, CaliforniaSonja Graf
1956Oklahoma CitySonja Graf
1957ClevelandSonja Graf
1958Rochester, MinnesotaKathryn Slater
1959Omaha, NebraskaSonja Graf
1960St. LouisLisa Lane
1961San FranciscoEva Aronson
1962San AntonioKathryn Slater
1963ChicagoKate Sillars
1964BostonKathryn Slater and Cecilia Rock
1965Río Piedras, Puerto RicoMary Bain and Kathryn Slater
1966SeattleMary Bain
1967AtlantaMary Bain
1968Aspen, ColoradoMarilyn Koput
1969Lincoln, NebraskaEva Aronson
1970BostonDinah Dobson
1971Ventura, CaliforniaMabel Burlingame
1972Atlantic City, New JerseyRuth Donnelly
1973ChicagoEva Aronson
1974New York CityRuth Donnelly and Ruth Haring
1975Lincoln, NebraskaRuth Cardoso
1976Fairfax, VirginiaDiane Savereide
1977Columbus, OhioRuth Orton (née Haring)
1978Phoenix, ArizonaDiane Savereide
2009Tulsa, OklahomaNath Saheli[3]
2015Las VegasSimone Liao, Ramya Inapuri, Uyanga Byambaa, and Joanna Liu
2016Las VegasVera Nebolsina
2017Las VegasNazí Paikidze
2018Las VegasSaikhanchimeg Tsogtsaikhan
2019Las VegasMegan Lee
2021Las VegasCarla Heredia

See also

Notes
  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
  • 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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