She was born in Ogden, Utah, but her family moved to St. Joseph, Missouri while she was an infant. She lived there until she was ten years old. At that time the family moved to St. Louis where she graduated from high school in 1875 as valedictorian of her class.
She was unable to recall when she began playing chess, having been taught by her father, Dr. James Allen, an Englishman, from Lancashire, who was very fond of the game. He was a surgeon in the Union Army. Much of his leisure time was devoted to playing chess. He taught his daughter and insisted that she play a game at noon hour while attending school and she remembered frequently after finishing the game she would have to run all the way back to school to be on time.
After finishing high school and until about twelve years after her marriage, she did not play chess. Mrs. Burgess taught school and music for one year in Montgomery County and on July 4, 1876, married Samuel R. Burgess (1851–1918) of St. Louis. Mr. Burgess was the secretary of the Boland Book Company until he retired.
When her 16 year old brother came to visit, he was very anxious to try his skill against her. While she felt that she did not even remember the moves, she asked her husband to bring home a set from the book store and the next day played seventeen games with her brother, losing only the first one.
After her husband became interested in the game players in North St. Louis organized a club known as The North St. Louis Chess Club. Burgess was the only woman member and was successful in the four club tournaments in which she played, winning first prize three times and second once. One of her prizes was a shopping bag with gold mountings and beautifully engraved.
In 1901 a Woman's Chess Club was founded and held its weekly meetings in the rooms of the Office Men's Club. A visitor from Canada, Mrs. Coldwell, a visitor from Canada, was the one who suggested the club and was the main organizer. Mrs. Burgess won first prize in the club championship with 9.5-0.5 score; it was the club's only championship as it lasted only one winter.
When the West End Chess Club was organized in 1907 with about 20 members Burgess and another lady served alternately as the vice-president as a courtesy.
Eveline Burgess won the women's championship in March 1907, having won it from Mrs. Clarence Frey, then living in Newark, New Jersey, but she was a member of the Woman's Chess Club of New York. The match was played at the club headquarters of the Martha Washington Hotel in New York. For this victory Burgess was awarded a gold medal.
Soon after winning the title Burgess was challenged by Mrs. Natalie Nixdorff of Cambridge, Mass., but arrangements for a match were made to it to be played in 1908. Mrs. Burgess won the match 4-1. She got another, and larger, gold pin with a shield enameled in colors on a chess board surmounted by a crown.
After that Burgess was challenged by Mrs. Lynn, of Chicago, but at the time agreed upon Mrs. Lynn was unable to keep the appointment. Natalie Nixdorff was anxious for another match, again challenged Mrs. Burgess, who accepted, but the match was never played.
Mrs. Burgess taught her grandson to play chess and her five children all played "a little," but only the oldest son, Samuel Allen, was really good, having won a simultaneous game against Pillsbury, while he was a student at Washington University. Not one of the children, however, were fond of chess, and only Mr. and Mrs. Burgess belonged to the chess clubs. She died on July 10, 1936, in Independence, Missouri.
In 1906 Mrs. Burgess met Mrs. C. P. Frey, of Newark, New Jersey who had won a New York tournament that year, in a championship match from March 2nd to the 9th.
Arriving in New York in company with her husband they visited Brooklyn to witness the international cable match, and met with Mrs. Frey to negotiate the details of the match. The details were settled at a meeting of the two husbands at the Manhattan Chess Club. The time limit was twenty moves an hour and Mrs. Burgess would be playing with clocks for the first time.
The match took place in the parlor of the Hotel Martha Washington on East 29th street which was also the venue of the First American Women's Chess Congress. Professor Isaac L. Rice was the referee of the match.
At the start of the match Mrs. Frey scored first after an eventful tussle, but Mrs. Burgess was not discouraged and made up for the poor start by taking the next two games. Mrs. Burgess also won the fourth game, drew the fifth and clinched the match by winning the sixth.
The best game of the match was the third, which was well conducted by Mrs. Burgess, who showed herself to be an attacking player of considerable force.
Eveline Burgess - Mary Grace Frey
Result: 1-0
Site: US Women's Champ Match, New York
Date: 1907.04.03
QGD Semi-Slav Defense
[...] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♘f6 4.♘f3 c6 With Ps on e6 and c6 this defense resembles a mixture of the Orthodox QGD and the Slav Defense. Black is threatening to capture on c4 and hold it with ...b7-b5, but white can avoid this in a number of ways. Usually seen are either 5.Bg5 which involves a sharp P sacrifice or 5.e3. 5.e3 White gives priority to developing the light-squared B and accepts that for the time being the dark-squared B which is naturally developed on g5 will remain out of play. 5...♗b4 This is a rare sideline instead of the almost universally played 5...Nbd7 6.♗d2 O-O 7.♗d3 dxc4 8.♗xc4 ♘bd7
8...c5 9.dxc5 ♗xc5 10.O-O ♘c6 11.♕e2 e5 12.h3 1/2-1/2 Kallai,G (2410)-Csom,I (2485)/Siofok 1990
9.a3
9.O-O ♕e7 10.a3 ♗d6 11.e4 e5 12.d5 ♘b6 Jovanovic,D (2240)-Stojanac,A (2059)/Belgrade 2004. White should now play 13.Bb3 with equality.
9...♘b6 Better was 9... Be7 10.♗d3 ♗xc3 11.♗xc3 ♘bd5 On the next move white should have kept the two Bs with the retreat 12.Bd2 and black should have availed herself of the opportunity to play 12...Nxc3. 12.♕c2 ♖e8 13.♗d2 Black has no P breaks by either ...c5 or ...e5 and so she opts to shield h7 by the following N maneuver. 13...♘e7 14.♘e5 ♘g6 15.h4 ♕c7 So that if 16.h5 Nxe5 (15...♘xe5 16.dxe5 ♘d5 17.♗xh7+) 16.f4 (16.h5 ♘xe5 17.dxe5 ♕xe5) 16...♘f8 17.g4 ♘6d7 Black's opening play has been a disaster and as a result she is reduced to a passive defense. 18.g5 f5 Her position was bad, but this mistake weakening the K-side simply hastens the end.
18...♘xe5 19.dxe5 b6 20.h5 leaves black facing a formidable assault on her K, but at least she could hope to hold out longer.
19.gxf6 The end is near. 19...♘xf6
19...gxf6 20.♖g1+ ♘g6 (20...♔h8 21.♘f7#) 21.♗xg6 fxe5 22.♗xe8+ wins
20.O-O-O Adding the other R to the mix will finish off the game. 20...♘6d7 21.h5 ♘xe5 22.fxe5 ♖e7 23.♖dg1 (23.♗b4 was also good. 23...♖e8 24.♗xf8 ♖xf8 25.♗xh7+) 23...h6 24.♗b4 ♖f7 25.♗g6
25.♗xf8 would have worked, too. 25...♖xf8 26.♕g2 c5 27.♕g6 cxd4+ 28.♔b1 ♖f5 29.♕xh6
25...♘xg6 26.hxg6 Alertly played!
26.♕xg6 allows black to equalize! 26...c5 and a likely continuation might be 27.♗c3 cxd4 28.exd4 ♗d7 29.♖h4 ♖af8 30.♖f4 ♗c8 31.♖f6 ♖xf6 32.exf6 ♕f4+
26...♖d7 27.♖f1
27.♕c5 ♖e7 28.♖f1 b6 29.♕xe7 ♕xe7 30.♗xe7 ♗a6 31.♖f7 ♖c8 32.♖h4 ♗d3 33.e4 c5 34.♖hf4 cxd4+ 35.♔d2 ♖c2+ 36.♔xd3 ♖d2+ 37.♔xd2 d3 38.♖f8#
27...♕d8 28.♖f8+
28.♕c5 ♖d6 29.♕xd6 ♗d7 30.♖f7 c5 31.♖xd7 ♕e8 32.♖xg7+ ♔xg7 33.♕c7+ ♕d7 34.♕xd7+ ♔xg6 35.♖g1+ ♔h5 36.♕g7 c4 37.♖h1#
28...♕xf8 29.♗xf8 The rest of the game is a mopping up exercise. 29...♔xf8 30.♕c5+ ♔e8 31.♖f1 ♔d8 32.♕f8+ ♔c7 33.♖f7 ♖b8 34.♖xd7+ ♗xd7 35.♕xg7 h5 36.♕h7 ♖f8 37.g7 ♖f1+ 38.♔d2 ♖f2+ 39.♔c3 Black resigned. Powered by Aquarium
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