On January 13, 1894, a Terre Haute newspaper, Saturday Evening Mail, ran a story about how at least one New York newspaper was "lending itself to contemptible envy and jealousy" after it had been announced that money was on hand for the Great Masters’ Continental Chess Congress that was planned to be played in Terre Haute beginning on February 27th.
On January 1 1894, the New York Times scoffed, “Within these last weeks a certain person called Jackson, a former President of the Indiana Chess Association, has been sending out circulars asking chess players to enter for a tournament, for which Jackson alleges that some $3,000 has been subscribed, and that all players will get free board and lodging should they send their $25 entrance fee to Jackson."
Jackson was Charles O. Jackson and the Times reported that American master, Major James Hanham had written to him asking him to forward particulars as to how the prizes had been guaranteed and he received an answer that the information would be sent in a few days. Instead of the particulars, Hanham received an abusive letter.
Emanual Lasker told a Times reporter how that when he was asked to play a match against Jackson W. Showalter in Kokomo, Indiana, Jackson had written him saying he would get reimbursed for his expenses, but Lasker told the reporter that after the match, "...I made out a bill, but I did not get a cent and I also had to pay my hotel bill.’”
Showalter also got swindled by Jackson when he played the match against Lasker. Jackson told Showalter that his (Jackson's) stake money that he had to put up was ready and waiting for him. But, when he arrived in Kokomo, Jackson told him the backers had gone to San Francisco and that he (Jackson) did not have Showalter's stakes. As a result, Showalter had to write to his father, who put up the money.
Also, Showalter told the Times reporter
that he had been present at the last meeting of the Indiana Chess
Association and knew it to be a fact that Jackson ha not been elected
President, adding that if Jackson was claiming to be President, "I must
nail it as a lie."
All this caused the Times to write, “Whether chess players would do well to forward any money to Jackson after hearing the stories of Hanham, Lasker and Showalter is rather doubtful.”
In spite of the Times' warning, Dr. Gerstmeyer, the president of the Terre Haute Chess Club, stated that the club had every confidence that when the entries closed on January 27th, the money would be turned over to the club by Jackson who was from Kokomo and was president of the state's chess association.
Dr. Gerstmeyer stated that none of the money had been raised in Terre Haute, but "Mr. Jackson obtained it somewhere." And, if 26 entries were obtained then the tournament would be a "go." At the same time it was noted that not more than 40 entries would be accepted and if 30 players entered, then the tournament should last a month.
Two weeks later, the Times published another story under the title C.O. Jackson, Chess Swindler in which they took credit for exposing him as “a swindler of great ingenuity.”
Finally, on January 17th, the Terre Haute Chess Club severed its association with Jackson, admitted that it had been duped and announced the cancellation of the Great Masters Continental Chess Congress.
The club also admitted that it had published a circular in which they had declared that the large prize fund had already been deposited. It seems they had taken Jackson's word for it.
On January 27, the New York Times had another story on Jackson who claimed he was induced by "Western racing men" to make up the fake tournament. The Times took credit for exposing Jackson's swindle.
The August 4, 1894 issue of the St. Louis Chess and Club Weekly had snippet about another swindle. This one involved Sam Loyd in a game he had played. Loyd's opponent was given only only as Huntington and neither the event or the date were listed.
The swindle came when Loyd, a piece down, forced a stalemate which, according to the article, he had been planning for 10 moves.
Huntington–Sam Loyd½–½C53Unknown1894Stockfish 15
Giuoco Piano 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.c4 c5 4.c3 d6 Usual is 4...Nf6. This
rather tame sideline has not produced good results for black. 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 b6 7.h3 f6 8.c3 Better was either 8.O-O or 8.d5 8.d5 e5 9.xe5 dxe5 10.c3 8...0-0 8...h6 was played in Elkholti,A (2268)
-Haddouche,M (2492) Cairo 2015. 9.0-0 0-0 10.e3 xe4 11.xe4 d5 12.f6+ xf6 13.xd5 d8 Black has a positional advantage 8...xe4 The is the
standard way to equalize in these positions. 9.xe4 d5 10.0-0 0-0 11.xd5 xd5 12.c3 d6 9.g5 9.d5 e5 10.xe5 dxe5 11.0-0 e8 12.b3 d6 13.d3 h4 14.e3 xe3 15.fxe3 xh3 16.gxh3 g3+ Draw. Pikula,D (2532)-Pinter,
J (2501) Basel 2004 9...h6 10.xf6 10.h4 g5 11.g3 xe4 12.xe4 e8 12...d5 Here this is a losing blunder. 13.xd5 a5+ 14.f1 Black
resigned. Lahaye,R (2220)-Burggraaf,J Dieren 2000 13.0-0 xe4 14.d3
Black stands well. Kovalenko,V-Romanov,V (2307) Kiev 2004 10...xf6 11.d5 a5+ 12.c3 For tactical reasons 12.Kf1 was better. e8 The threat is ...
Nxd4 13.d5 Castling would have been safer. 13.a3 A pass to demonstrate
black's threat. xd4 14.xd4 xd4 15.xd4 xe4+ 16.e2 xd4 Black is up
two Ps. 13...f5 This pin on the e-Pawn is not as dangerous as it looks. 13...g6 14.e2 xg2 15.0-0-0 Threatening to trap the Q with 16.Rdg1 g6 16.dg1 h5 Black has swiped a P and he is in no real danger on the K-side
provided he defends carefully. 14.0-0 xc3 15.exf5 15.bxc3 was much
less risky and after d7 16.b1 white has a nice position. 15...xb2 16.xc6 bxc6 17.b1 ab8 18.d2 a3 19.c3 xb1 20.xb1 This position is
tricky and even the great problimist Sam Loyd doesn't find the one move that
keeps the position equal. xf5 After this white is winning
because he loses the B. 20...c5 This is the only equalizing move he has. 21.g4 b6 etc. 21.f1 Moving the R out of range of black's Q, but a more
active square like d1 seems more reasonable. d5 21...c5 was no better. 22.dxc5 dxc5 23.c1 22.xa3 Black is theoretically lost here, but by
eliminating ll the Ps in the center and Q-side white's extra N will be
difficult to utilize. e2 23.xa7 xa2 24.xc7 a3 25.c1 c5 26.dxc5 dxc5 27.xc5 As an example of the difficulties facing white in this ending, after
eliminating the heavy pieces a quick analysis with Stockfish resulted in white
winning the N+3P vs 3P ending in 59 moves. With the heavy pieces on white will
have to play circumspectly to demonstrate the win even though the engine gives
him a 7.5 Pawn advantage! d1+ 28.h2 h7 28...a1 This allows a
demonstration of how black is in danger of getting mated. 29.c8+ h7 30.f5+ g6 31.xf7+ mates in 2. 29.e5 a6 30.xf7 g6 31.d5 f1 32.h4 f6 33.e8 White threatens Rd8 and mate. c4 Supposedly it was here that
Loyd began thinking about the possibility of a stalemate. 33...xf2 34.e4+ g8 35.g6 ends the game. 34.h5 f4+ 35.g3 xf2+ 36.g2 g6 37.e5 f6 38.e4+ g6 39.d3 b6 40.h4 Threatening mate with h5. g8 41.d8+ h7 White's quickest path to victory is the mate in 12 after 42.Nf4 42.h5 A ghastly blunder! 42.f4 f2+ 43.h3 b6 44.xg6 xg6 45.h8+ xh8 46.xg6 h5 47.xh5+ g8 48.e8+ h7 49.h5 g5 50.e7+ h8 51.xg5 h7 52.h6 h8 53.g7# 42...g1+ 43.xg1 What can you say? ½–½
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