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TOURNAMENT STANDINGS
7th American Chess Congress, St. Louis Tournament
Frank Marshall8.5/9(+8 -0 =1)[games]
Max Judd7/9(+7 -2 =0)[games]
Louis Uedemann6/9(+6 -3 =0)[games]
Emil Kemeny5/9(+5 -4 =0)[games]
Edward Friederich Schrader4.5/9(+4 -4 =1)[games]
Louis Eisenberg4.5/9(+4 -4 =1)[games]
Charles Jaffe4/9(+4 -5 =0)[games]
George Schwietzer3/9(+3 -6 =0)[games]
Stasch Mlotkowski2.5/9(+2 -6 =1)[games]
Eugene Wesley Shrader0/9(+0 -9 =0)[games]
*

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
7th American Chess Congress, St. Louis (1904)
St. Louis was a busy place in 1904. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition (known informally as the 1904 World's Fair) was held there from 30 April to 1 December 1904. The Summer Olympic games were also held in St. Louis from 1 July to 23 November 1904. Although originally scheduled to be held in Chicago, the St. Louis group played hardball and threatened to hold their own international athletic competition unless the games were moved to St. Louis. (1) Poorly run and with relatively few foreign athletes (only about a tenth of the competitors were from outside the US), the games were largely overshadowed by the fair itself.

With the fair and the Olympics as a backdrop, the 7th American Chess Congress was held at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis 11-26 October 1904. The MAC was founded just before the fair and the original building was lost to fire in 1914. (2) Max Judd, who was head of the organizing committee, wanted to name the winner US champion, but Harry Nelson Pillsbury, both directly and by proxy through his friend Walter Penn Shipley, objected strenuously to the idea. (3) This, along with his poor heath, was probably responsible for Pillsbury's absence from St. Louis. Despite Pillsbury's objections, Marshall was awarded a gold medal recognizing him as US "champion" for winning the tournament.

Draws were replayed with colors reversed, and if the second game was also drawn the result was scored as one draw. The sequence of rounds was determined by lot each day. Games were played 1-6 PM and 8-11 PM with time controls of 30 moves in 2 hours and 15 moves an hour thereafter.

There are two games missing.

1) Eisenberg-Shrader 1-0 from Round 9 was a forfeit. Helms wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle coverage for 26 October 1904 that <Eisenberg added another point to his total, scoring by default against Dr. Shrader, who was called home.>

2) Jaffe-Uedemann 1-0 from Round 8 is a bit murkier. The game collection sources I have consulted give either no game at all or present it as a forfeit in favor of Jaffe. However, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of 22 October 1904 reported that <C. Jaffe of Brooklyn strengthened his position considerably by winning from L. Uedemann of Chicago, the Western champion.> So, the game collections imply a forfeit, but the Eagle coverage implies a played game. In either event, no game score seems to be available, and all sources agree it was a win for Jaffe.

Uedemann finished second to Mlotkowski in the "minor" tournament (Western Chess Championship) held just before the congress. As the highest-scoring eligible player (Uedemann was from Chicago), he was named 'Western Champion'. The biggest surprise of the tournament was the poor showing of Mlotkowski. In the "minor" tournament, he had finished clear first, by 2.5 points (+11 -0 =2). Kemeny, Schrader, Shrader and Uedemann also played in both the minor and major events, and why Mlotkowski did so well in the minor and so poorly in the major is a mystery. Playing two games per day for a week in the minor apparently took a lot out of him. The coverage in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for 16 October 1904 speculated <Fatigue, coupled with his fondness for the Evans and Greco counter gambits, which yielded poor results in this contest, no doubt are the factors responsible for his lack of success.>

There wasn't much of a race for first. Marshall easily ran through the field and only gave up a pair of draws (scored as one draw) to Mlotkowski in the last round. By that point Marshall was assured of first place as long as he did not lose to Mlotkowski. Judd lost an endgame to Uedemann in Round 2 (L Uedemann vs M Judd, 1904), which put him a point behind Marshall. Then when they met in Round 7, Judd completely collapsed against Marshall in less than 20 moves (Marshall vs M Judd, 1904), leaving Marshall in complete control with a 2-point lead over the field with two rounds to play. Uedemann lost in Round 1 to Marshall (Marshall vs L Uedemann, 1904), but might have stayed in the race for second had he not lost to Schweitzer in Round 5 (L Uedemann vs G Schwietzer, 1904) - in one of Schweitzer's three wins in the tournament. A loss to Jaffe in Round 8 (either played or forfeited) relegated Uedemann to third.

A draw in the crosstable indicates both the initial and the replay game were drawn. If only the initial game was drawn, the result from the replay game was used.

            M J U K S E J S M S  Pts
Marshall    x 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 1  8.5
Judd        0 x 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1  7.0
Uedemann    0 1 x 1 1 1 0 0 1 1  6.0
Kemeny      0 0 0 x 1 1 1 0 1 1  5.0
Schrader    0 0 0 0 x = 1 1 1 1  4.5
Eisenberg   0 0 0 0 = x 1 1 1 1  4.5
Jaffe       0 0 1 0 0 0 x 1 1 1  4.0
Schwietzer  0 0 1 1 0 0 0 x 0 1  3.0
Mlotkowski  = 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 x 1  2.5
Shrader     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 x  0.0
References: (1) Wikipedia article: American Chess Congress , (2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/mohist..., (3) http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skitt..., (4) Original collection: Game Collection: St. Louis 1904, by User: crawfb5.

 page 2 of 3; games 26-50 of 53  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
26. S Mlotkowski vs C Jaffe  0-15219047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC25 Vienna
27. C Jaffe vs E F Schrader  0-14019047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD52 Queen's Gambit Declined
28. L Uedemann vs E Kemeny  ½-½2219047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
29. E Shrader vs Marshall 0-14819047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
30. S Mlotkowski vs L Eisenberg  0-13519047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
31. M Judd vs G Schwietzer 1-07919047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisB01 Scandinavian
32. G Schwietzer vs C Jaffe  ½-½4719047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD02 Queen's Pawn Game
33. E F Schrader vs L Eisenberg ½-½6119047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisB20 Sicilian
34. L Uedemann vs S Mlotkowski  1-02619047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
35. E Kemeny vs E Shrader 1-04119047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC45 Scotch Game
36. Marshall vs M Judd 1-01719047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD21 Queen's Gambit Accepted
37. E F Schrader vs E Kemeny  0-17419047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC53 Giuoco Piano
38. G Schwietzer vs S Mlotkowski 0-15819047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD02 Queen's Pawn Game
39. M Judd vs E Shrader  1-04819047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC44 King's Pawn Game
40. L Eisenberg vs E Kemeny  ½-½4319047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
41. E F Schrader vs Marshall  ½-½5119047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisB20 Sicilian
42. C Jaffe vs G Schwietzer  1-04719047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC14 French, Classical
43. E Kemeny vs L Uedemann 0-13319047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisA40 Queen's Pawn Game
44. L Eisenberg vs E F Schrader ½-½5319047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD51 Queen's Gambit Declined
45. Marshall vs E F Schrader 1-06519047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD31 Queen's Gambit Declined
46. E Kemeny vs L Eisenberg  1-07119047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisD50 Queen's Gambit Declined
47. G Schwietzer vs E Kemeny  1-07719047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
48. E F Schrader vs L Uedemann  ½-½3719047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisC53 Giuoco Piano
49. S Mlotkowski vs Marshall  ½-½4219047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisB40 Sicilian
50. C Jaffe vs M Judd  ½-½5319047th American Chess Congress, St. LouisA84 Dutch
 page 2 of 3; games 26-50 of 53  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

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