The question was asked: Was the recently concluded NJHS championship event the largest chess tournament ever conducted in the state of Wisconsin? At the time we weren’t sure; the registered attendence was probably higher than the the 1961 tournament, the previous largest we were sure of, but USCF’s story on it (in the Sep 1961 Chess Life) only gave the vague 1400 (inferring something between 1350 and 1449, most likely). The NJHS exceeded that, so, in the absence of more precise numbers from 1961 we were prepared to believe we had a new record.

But we don’t. The 1967 Milwaukee City Scholastic championships (held toward the end of every summer) has been confirmed at 1535 players (Milwaukee Chess News, #1, pg 2) just nosing out the NJHS for largest tournament in the history of Milwaukee or Wisconsin.

(We continue to hear rumors about much larger tournaments, but so far we haven’t had concrete evidence of their existence. We would appreciate hearing of any evidence anyone has of older events. All the while we will, of course, attempt to put the rumors to the test ourselves.)

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