“We wish that we could draw a veil over the lamentable portion of the history of this tournament that now remains to be related; or, let us rather say, that we wish that moral rectitude and incorruptibility would have spared us the painful duty of referring to an episode which cast a pall over an event that had borne every promise of terminating under the happiest auspices.

The match between Captain Mackenzie and Mr. Grundy to decide the order of distribution of the first and second prizes had been assigned to commence at one o’clock on Thursday, January 29th; but on the morning of that day Mr. Preston Ware, Jr. appeared before the sub-committee in attendance at the rooms and presented a written statement wherein he preferred necessary until a proper investigation could be entered into by the general committee. A meeting of that body was held on the evening of the 30th, to which the accuser and the accused were called for examination in the presence of each other.  Mr. Ware’s allegations, which implicated himself as particeps criminis in the undignified transaction, and consequently assumed the character of a State’s evidence confession, averred as follows:  ‘I was walking down the Bowery with Mr. Grundy on Sunday, January 25th; he remarked to me that he was poor, and really needed the second prize; that I had, in beating him, knocked him out of the first prize; that Mohle and Judd were well off, and it would not make any difference to me if I played easily in our next game, so as to give him the second prize; and that he would be willing to give a consideration for it.  I said: “I suppose you mean for us to play for a draw.”  He said: “Yes;” and I agreed to do it, and $20 was agreed upon as the consideration.  We agreed to play on very slowly until the other games were terminated, and to move back and forth to prolong the game.  At the adjournment I evidently had the best of the game, and he said, at our lunch, that he would delay coming in until about 8 o’clock, but that I should start up his clock, as he had plenty of time to spare.  But, instead, he came in soon after 7 o’clock, and when we began to play I moved back and forward as agreed, and after I had done so, perhaps three or four times, I observed he was making desperate efforts to win, and finally did so, perpetrating an infamous fraud upon me.’

To these charges, which Mr. Ware emphatically maintained a further oral statement before the committee, Mr. Grundy, in the presence of his accuser, opposed a firm denial; and the case resolved itself into a question of veracity between two individuals, one of whom freely acknowledged a guilty participation in wrong doings which he charged upon the other, but which the defendant pronounced as a complete fabrication.  In the absence of any corroborative testimony in support of the charges adduced, the committee could not feel warranted in inflicting any penalty upon Mr. Grundy, who was given the benefit of a technical doubt, and a verdict of ‘not proven’ was entered by the adoption of a resolution that, ‘the charges were not sustained to the satisfaction of the committee.’

The match of Mr. Grundy and Captain Mackenzie was thereupon ordered to proceed on the following day, Saturday, January 31st.  The battle commenced at one o’clock, and at half-past five the issue was decided by a victory for Captain Mackenzie, who encountered but slight resistance from his opponent in the two hasty and unentertaining games tht brought the Grand Tournament to an end.”

Reference Data:

The 5th American Chess Congress, by Charles A. Gilberg, 1881, pages 149-150