An attempt to add dates to the 1st American Chess Congress games.

The Fuller-Meek Mystery Match The score for game 2 is unavailable. Fiske in the tournament book has Meek winning games 1, 2 and 5 with Fuller winning games 3 and 4. Newspaper accounts, however, have Fuller winning game 2 in 68 moves. If the scores are correct, he would have won the match with 3 wins after game 4. The NY Tribune says Meek and Fuller split games 3 and 4 and played a 5th game draw that same day. Fiske expresses bewilderment as to how all four existing scores have Meek playing the White pieces. We will stay with the tournament book, but it seems plausible that game 4 has the colors reversed. This would give Meek White in games 1,3,5 and 6. They kept the same colors after a draw. A likely match table is

       WBWBWW
Meek   1010½1
Fuller 0101½0

Oct 7 Wednesday - Paulsen-Calthrop and Montgomery-Allison played 2 games and those matches ended. Morphy-Thompson did not play, although they did contest a casual game. Fiske-Marache finished an adjourned game. Stanley-Lichtenhein still hadn't started. Meek lost to Fuller, Kennicott to Raphael and Knott to Perrin, all three matches tied at 1-1. The Meek-Fuller game score is unavailable. http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 8 Thursday - Morphy over Thompson (3-0). Fiske defeated Marache (2-0). Perrin-Knott (adjourned - eventually drawn only the first 32 moves are available). Meek-Fuller DNP. Kennicott-Raphael drawn. Stanley-Lichtenstein still hadn't started.

Morphy played casual games against Montgomery in the morning and Paulsen at 9 p.m, winning both.

http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 9 Friday - Stanley finally showed up! He lost to Lichtenhein. Meek-Fuller played 3 games ending up even for the day at 1-1-1 and 2-2-1 for the match. Kennicott defeated Raphael. Fiske-Marache DNP (illness), Perrin-Knott DNP http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 10 Saturday - Only two games were contested on what apparently was considered an off day. Stanley beat Lichtenhein, thereby evening the match (1-1). Raphael defeated Kennicott. Their match was also tied at 2-2-1. At 4:00 p.m., Paulsen began a four board blindfold simul. Source: NY Herald Oct 12, 1857 page 8

Oct 12 Monday - Raphael beat Kennicott to win the match 3-2-1. Stanley beat Lichtenhein (2-1). Knott defeated Perrin (2-1-1). Meek-Fuller DNP, Fisk-Marache DNP (illness). http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 13 Tuesday - Meek beat Fuller, winning the match 3-2. Lichtenhein won from Stanley (2-2). Paulsen defeated Montgomery (1-0). Knott-Perrin was drawn (2-1-2). Score is unavailable. Fiske complains "recorded in such a way as to be wholly unintelligible". Meek lost to Morphy. http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 14 Wednesday - Marache over Fiske (1-2), Paulsen over Montgomery (2-0 and match). Montgomery had to leave and resigned the match. Morphy over Meek (2-0). Perrin defeated Knott (2-2-2). http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 15 Thursday - Perrin defeated Knott and won the match (3-2-2). Lichtenhein won over Stanley and won the match (3-2). Morphy beat Meek and won the match (3-0). http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 16 Friday - Lichtenhein defeated Perrin (1-0)- New York Weekly News Saturday, October 24, 1857 "Messrs. Lichtenhein and Perrin have just commenced, the former won the first game last evening"

Oct 17 Saturday - Marache defeated Fiske (2-2)- New York Morning Express, Monday, October 19, l857 http://fultonhistory.com/highlighte...

Oct 20 Tuesday - Marache finally defeats Fiske and wins match 3-2. The match had held up the progress of the tournament and now Marache tried to speed things by playing Raphael in evening and two games a day for the next two days. He lost the first gaame and Raphael led 1-0.

Oct 21 Wednesday - Raphael drew and then defeated Marache in a second game to lead 2-0-1 in the match Fiske(page 86). Paulsen 5 game Blindfold exhibition @4 p.m. Four games were adjourned.

Oct 22 Thursday - Marache defeated Raphael twicw to even their match at 2-2-1, Fiske (page 86). Lichtenhein-Morphy 0-1 game 1 of their match, Lawson (game 25), Fiske(page 86). Paulsen finished his BF exhibition.

Oct 23 Friday - Raphael defeated Marache and won the match 3-2 with 1 draw. Morphy-Lichtenhein 1-0, Lawson (game 26). Morphy led 2-0.

Oct 24 Saturday - Raphael-Paulsen 0-1 game 1, The Raphael-Marache match ended on the 23rd. We date this game the day after but it's possible it was played Friday night.

Oct 26 Monday - Lichtenhein-Morphy drawn game 3 http://www.chessarch.com/excavation... Paulsen-Raphael drawn in two sessions and 14 hrs game 2. Played Oct 26 and 27

Oct 27 Tuesday - Morphy-Lichtenhein 1-0 game 4, Morphy wins 3-0-1 http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

Oct 28 Wednesday Paulsen defeated Raphael to lead 2-0-1. Raphael resigned the match.

Oct 29 Thursday Morphy beat Paulsen in a 4 hour morning game 1-0, Lichtenhein-Raphael 1-0 Evening Post (Oct 31). Morphy and Paulsen started their 2nd game, but adjourned at 5 p.m. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%...

Oct 30 - Friday- Morphy-Paulsen is drawn after 13 hours play. 1-0-1

Oct 31 - Saturday - Paulsen wins the 3rd game. 1-1-1 match score.

Nov 2 - Monday morning (4th match game) - Morphy-Paulsen play a two hour draw. Nov 2 - Monday afternoon (5th match game) - Game started and adjourned at 5 p.m. Nov 4-Weds - Morphy Wins his fourth game
Nov 5-Thursday Morphy Wins the 5th game and the match http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%...

http://www.fultonhistory.com/highli... Notes:

Raphael-Marache

Oct 20 - First Game (3.5 hrs) - Fiske (page 85), Tribune (Oct 21) 1-0

Fiske(page 86) gives the score as 2-2 through Oct 22. When we include the draw in his score, it means that they played 4 games in 2 days. We date two games on each day:

Oct 21 - Game 2 (2 hrs) 1/2-1/2, game 3 (2 hrs)  1-0
Oct 22 - Game 4(.75 hrs) 0-1, Games 5 (5.25 hrs) 0-1 score is 2-2 - Fiske (page 86)
Oct 23 - Games 6 (2hrs) 1-0 Raphael wins 3-2 with 1 draw

Morphy-Lichtenhein Lawson dates games one and two on Oct 22 and Oct 23. He states that both Morphy and Paulsen ended their semi-final matches on Monday Oct 26. Fiske also dates game 1 on the 22nd and says the score is 2-0-1 as of the 24th. This would mean the draw or third game was played on Saturday the 24th. However, the Tribune (Oct 26) has only two games played the previous week and their report on Wednesday(Oct 28) has Morphy winning the match on Tuesday after drawing a game. Note that the Lawson/Fiske scenario would have Morphy and Paulson just waiting around three days until the 29th to start their match. This is unlikely and I favor the newspaper account dating the four games on Oct 22, 23, 26 and 27.

Paulsen-Raphael The Marache-Raphael match finished on the 23nd. I have dated the first game of this match on the 24th (6 hrs won by Paulsen) . There is the small possibility that it was started on the 23rd after the Marache match. The second game was played Oct 26 and Oct 27, a two session 14 hour draw Tribune Oct (28) The third game was played Oct 28, Tribune (Oct 29). Raphael resigned the match trailing 0-2-1.

Morphy-Paulsen

Oct 29 - Thursday Morning Morphy wins the first game. Second game started.

Oct 30 - Friday (conclusion of 2nd game)

Oct 31 - Saturday (3rd game) (Paulsen wins)

Nov 2 - Monday morning (4th game) - Morphy-Paulsen play a two hour draw.

Nov 2 - Monday afternoon (5th match game) - Game started and adjourned at 5 p.m.

Nov 3 - Tuesday Morphy wins the fifth game 3-0-1

Nov 4- Wednesday - Morphy's Brilliancy wins the fourth game

Nov 5- Thursday Morphy Wins the 5th game and the match

Undated Fiske-Marache game 4 (update - date now found!); Lichtenhein-Perrin games 2,3.