Echesspedia

One the most prestigious American Open tournaments. First founded in 1965 by the late USCF President Ed Edmondson and organized by the Santa Monica Bay chess club, the event was planned to counterbalance corresponding national chess championships US Open and National Open. Though it is not as influential as the latter events, the American Open maintained its prestige as an American tradition like the US Open and the World Open, the event attracts hundreds of IGMs and amateurs.

The winners were:

1965 Pal Benko, 1966 Larry Kaufman, Robion Kirby, 1967 Anthony Saidy, 1968 James Lazos, 1969 Ray Martin, 1970 Robert Byrne, 1971 Carl Pilnick, Larry Evans, Walter Browne, Ross Stoutenborough and Davis Strauss, 1972 Larry Remlinger, 1973 James Tarjan, 1974 Kim Commons, Peter Biyiasas, 1975 Kim Commons, David Strauss, 1976 Walter Browne, Yasser Seirawan, John Pike, 1977 Jack Peters and Cicero Braga, 1978 David Strauss, Paul Whitehead, 1979 Perry Youngworth, 1980 Walter Browne, John Grefe and David Strauss, 1981 Nick de Firmian and John Watson, 1982 Jack Peters, James Tarjan and Ian Rogers, 1983 Larry Christiansen, David Strauss and Nikolai Minev, 1984 Jack Peters and Igor Ivanov, 1985 Yasser Seirawan and Igor Ivanov, David Strauss, 1986 Lev Alburt Walter Browne and Boris Gulko, 1987 Yasser Seirawan, 1988 Jack Peters, 1989 Gata Kamsky, Larry Christiansen, Maxim Dlugy, Walter Browne and Nick de Firmian, 1990 Walter Browne and Igor Ivanov, 1991 Joel Benjamin, 1992 Chris Ramayrat, Jeremy Silman, Strauss and Anthony Saidy, 1993 Loek Van Wely, 1994 Dmitry Gurevich, 1995 Igor Ivanov, 1996 Alex Yermolinsky, 1997 Alex Goldin, Igor Ivanov and Walter Browne, 1998 Cyrus Lakdawala and Pavel Blatny, 1999 Eduard Gufeld, 2000 Andranik Matikozyan, 2001 Melikset Khachiyan, 2002 Pavel Blatny and Yuri Shulman, 2003 Varuzhan Akobian, 2004 Melikset Khachiyan, 2005 Vladimir Mezentsev, 2006 Gata Kamsky, 2007 Alex Yermolinsky, 2008 Melikset Khachiyan, 2009 Melikset Khachiyan, 2010 Joshua Friedel.