St. Louis was a very busy place in 1904. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition (known informally as the 1904 World's Fair) was held there from 30 Apr to 1 Dec 1904. The Summer Olympic games were also held in St. Louis from 1 Jul to 23 Nov 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. 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 Oct 1904. The MAC was founded just before the fair and the original building was lost to fire in 1914 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mohist...). Max Judd, head of the organizing committee, wanted to name the winner of the event US champion, but Harry Nelson Pillsbury, both directly and by proxy through his friend Walter Penn Shipley, objected strenuously to the idea (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skitt...). 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 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 Oct 1904 <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 Oct 1904 reported <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, either by play or forfeit.

THE PLAYERS

Frank Marshall -- only a few months earlier in the year, Marshall won at Cambridge Springs by two full points ahead of David Janowski and world champion Emanuel Lasker. Marshall went undefeated at Cambridge Springs in what was probably his greatest tournament success. He would also go undefeated at St. Louis, yielding only "one" draw (two draws against Mlotkowski scored as one draw) while cruising to a relatively easy first place.

Max Judd -- as a prominent local player and successful businessman, Judd was head of the organizing committee for the 7th Congress. This would be his sixth and final congress, as he would die in about a year and a half. Judd had won the Western Championship (forerunner to the US Open) the previous year. Over the years he had played matches with with George Henry Mackenzie, Albert Hodges, Jackson Whipps Showalter, and Harry Nelson Pillsbury. Judd did not like to leave St. Louis and this probably limited his chess career somewhat.

Louis Uedemann -- (http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichi...) 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.

Emil Kemeny -- Kememy (http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detai...) was a strong player from Philadelphia, wrote a chess column for a Philadelphia paper (http://www.correspondencechess.com/...), and edited the short-lived <American Chess Magazine>.

Edward Friederich Schrader -- Schrader was a St. Louis player who finished third in the "minor" tournament. He would win the 1905 Western championship in Minnesota. Uedemann played in the 1905 event, tied for third.

Louis R Eisenberg -- Originally from Odessa, one of Eisenberg's early notable games was his win against Pillsbury at Monte Carlo 1902 (L R Eisenberg vs Pillsbury, 1902). He moved to the US a few years before St. Louis and settled in Pittsburg, where he befriended William Ewart Napier.

Charles Jaffe -- St. Louis 1904 was one of Jaffe's first major chess events. Later he would go on to play matches against Marshall, George Schwietzer, Jacques Mieses, Isaac Kashdan, David Janowski and Oscar Chajes, as well as play against top players in various tournaments. His most infamous tournament would be Havana 1913, where Capablanca thought Jaffe's blunder against Marshall (C Jaffe vs Marshall, 1913) was a deliberate attempt to sabotage Capablanca's chances in the tournament by throwing a game to Marshall, who was Capablanca's main competition for first at Havana. Capablanca and Jaffe never played in another tournament together.

Stasch Mlotkowski -- the biggest surprise of the tournament was the poor showing of Mlotkowski. In the "minor" tournament (the Western Championship) held immediately before the "major" tournament (the 7th Congress itself), he 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 Oct 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.>

Eugene Wesley Shrader -- Shrader was active in Missouri chess organization and played in the minor event prior to the congress.

THE CROSSTABLE

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
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

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.