Max Judd (December 27, 1851 - May 7, 1906, 54 years old) was originally known as Maximlian Judkiewich because he was born in Krakow, Poland, but he emigrated to America in 1862.
Judd was a cloak manufacturer and chess master. Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd (1885-1889) and 24th (1893-1897) President of the United States and he appointed Judd as the U.S. Consul General to Austria.
James Mason (November 19, 1849 - January 12, 1905) was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. He was adopted as a child and his name changed; his original name is unknown. He immigrated to the United States in 1861 as a child, and then to England in 1878 as an adult. According to Chessmetrics' estimated ratings, he was the strongest player in the world from August 1877 through June 1878.
In 1876 Mason challenged Judd to a match, but the challenge ended in a fiasco. As the American Chess Bulletin of the day put it. "...no
games by these chessers need be looked for in this number of the Journal, or perhaps in any of those to come.
Mason, after challenging Judd, and "making considerable noise, ingloriously failed to" to follow through nor did he offer any public excuse for his failure to do so. Consequently, he incurred the wrath of the ACB.
Some time before issuing the challenge Mason had published in
his own chess column in Wilke's Spirit of the Times an attack on Judd. He wrote, "Mr. Max Judd, of St. Louis, is not so much disposed to play chess as he is to talk about it. Isn't that so, Mr. Judd?"
Judd replied in his chess column in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, saying, "...we would say that we are not as anxious to play Mr. Mason now as we were prior to the termination of the tourney in New York. We play chess for the glory of the thing, and now see no
glory in defeating Mr. Mason, since our late antagonist, Mr, Alberoni, whom we defeated so easily, has come out ahead of
him in the tourney, But, if Mr. Mason wishes to re-establish his reputation we are ready and wiling at any time to give him an opportunity to do so." (I am not sure what tournament in New York Judd was referring to.)
This was a reference to Edward Alberoni, about whom little is known. He was, apparently, a French player living in New York and in 1876 Judd defeated him in a match in Cleveland, Ohio, by a score of +6 -2 =4. At the time Alberoni had been living in the U.S. for two years.
Their war of words resulted in Mason yielded his point of twenty moves to the hour on the time limit and accepting 15. Mason did insist that Judd should deposit $100 at the office of the Turf, Field and Farm as good faith deposit. The Turf, Field and Farm was a New York that was mainly devoted to horse racing.
The St. Louis newspaper promptly deposited the $100 and Judd was informed by Captain George H. Mackenzie (who was negotiating for Mason) the deposit would be covered by Mason and that Mason would be in St. Louis to begin the match on June, 27, 1876.
The problem was, not only did Mason not appear on that date, he did not write or promptly send a telegram. And, on the 9th the Globe-Democrat declared the match to be off and added, "...we would say that Mr. Mason's conduct regarding the match has been far from what we expected. After Mr. Judd had accepted the challenge and all arrangements bad been made for the match...Mr. Mason should have at least written his inability to fulfill the engagement and then no serious fault could be found with him; but, to keep Mr. Judd ignorant of his intentions was, to put it mildly, very ungentlemanly."
The two did meet in August, 1876, though. It was in the 4th American Congress in Philadelphia. At the occasion of the World's Fair held in Philadelphia, a number of exhibitions and events were organized to take place during the fair in order to attract foreign interests and representatives.
In addition to many new inventions debuted at the fair, which included the telegraph, the telephone and the typewriter, the 4th American Chess Congress was held. Besides Judd and Mason, the players were:
Henry E. Bird (1829-1908) an English accountant who learned yo play chess at age 15 by watching players at a local coffeehouse which later became known as Simpson's Divan in London. By 1866 he had distinguished himself in an informal match against Steinitz. With Steinitz leading +7 -5 =5, Bird was called away to America by his employers and the match was not finished. Throughout his career, Bird proved himself to always be a dangerous opponent.
Jacob Elson (1839-1909) was born in Germany. After coming ot the U.S. he worked as a watchmaker in his shop in New York. A member of the Manhattan Chess Club, Elson took Pillsbury's umbrella and when Pillsbury asked the club to get it back, Elson told the club the umbrella was at his (Elson's) house and if Pillsbury wanted it back he could come and get it. Pillsbury would not go get it and neither would the club. As a Pillsbury resigned from the club in a fit of anger.
Harry Davidson (1858-1924) was born in Philadelphia, the tenth of about eleven children. His father Julius Davidson had emigrated from Poland to Pennsylvania in 1844 and his mother was originally from England. Trained as a wood engraver, he moved to New York around 1880 where he later became an art critic for the magazine Vogue. As a teenager he was a member of the Philadelphia Chess Club.
Albert Roberts (1857-1913) was a young Philadelphian, who first gave indications of remarkable ability in 1875, when MacKenzie and Bird visited the city. He gave up chess in 1898 and died in Philadelphia at the age of 47.
Preston Ware (1821-1890) was Boston's leading player of the late 19th century. He His few tournament appearances were not successful, due in part to his offbeat opening repertoire (moves like 1.a4 and 1...a5), but the highlight of his career was a win over Steinitz at Vienna 1882; it was Ware's only international tournament where he finished 16th out of 18.
Lorenzo Barbour (1840-1895) who lived in Portland, Maine before moving to Philadelphia sometime before 1870. He worked there in a clothing shop.
Dion Martinez (1837-1928) emigrated from Cuba somewhere between 1873-1875 and settled in Philadelphia, where he in 1885 became the first president of the Franklin Chess Club. In 1889, the New York Times wrote that he had not played since 1887 because "financial adversities have tended to detract his mind from the game." He left the tournament to go to Cuba when he learned of the illness of a family member. 
In this tournament Judd was outplayed rather easily by Mason in their first game and when it was time to play the second Judd became ill and was unable to play. The game was declared drawn because it had no affect on the distribution of prizes. The Bird vs. Barbour game was much more exciting!
[Event "4th American Congress, Philadelphia"]
[Site "Philadelphia, PA USA"]
[Date "1876.08.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Henry Bird"]
[Black "Lorenzo D Barbour"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C40"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "1876.08.16"]
{Elephant Gambit} 1. e4 {[%mdl 32]} e5 2. Nf3 d5 {The Elephant Gambit, aka the
Englund Counterattack, is considered unsound. White should be considered to
have an advantage because black is left with a passive position and white has
more space and the initiative.} 3. exd5 {Best} (3. Nxe5 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nh6 {
cannot be good for black!} (4... Be6 5. Bxe6 fxe6 6. Qh5+ {is winning for
white.})) (3. Nxe5 Bd6 {This is probably best.} 4. d4 dxe4 5. Bc4 Bxe5 6. Qh5
Qe7 7. Qxe5 Qxe5 8. dxe5 Nc6 9. Nc3 {Neither side has much to boast about.})
3... e4 4. Qe2 f5 5. d3 Nf6 (5... Qxd5 {Turned out quite badly for black in
Szczurek,N (1738)-Wrzalek,P (1600) Polanica Zdroj 2009} 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Bxc3
8. Bxc3 Ne7 9. dxe4 fxe4 10. Nd2 Bf5 11. Qh5+ {with the much better position;
black lasted only a handful more moves.}) 6. dxe4 fxe4 7. Ng5 (7. Nc3 {is also
quite good.} Be7 8. Nxe4 O-O 9. Bd2 b5 10. O-O-O Nxe4 11. Qxe4 {Yuan,Y (2119)
-Tate,E (2378) Chicago 2008. Even the strong Master and dangerous attacker
Emory Tate could not hold black's position.}) 7... Qxd5 8. f3 Bf5 {[%mdl 8192]
Fortunately for Barbour, his opponent fails to punish this clunker!} (8... Nc6
{offered a stouter defense.} 9. Nc3 (9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Qxe4+ Qxe4+ 11. fxe4 Nb4
{Despite being a P down, black has an active position.}) 9... Bb4 10. Ngxe4
Nxe4 11. Qxe4+ Qxe4+ 12. fxe4 Be6 {Developing and keeping his two Bs is better
than capturing on c3 even though it wrecks white's Ps.} 13. Bd2 O-O 14. O-O-O {
and white's advantage is minimal.}) 9. Nd2 (9. fxe4 {leaves black with no good
reply.} Nxe4 (9... Bxe4 {This capture is inferior to taking with the N, but
it's more difficult to calculate and may be the reason Bird rejected 9.fxe4}
10. Bd2 Nc6 11. Nc3 O-O-O 12. Ngxe4 Qa5 (12... Re8 13. Nxd5 Rxe4 14. Nxf6 Rxe2+
15. Bxe2 gxf6 {and white has won a R.}) 13. O-O-O {White is a piece ahead.})
10. g4 Bg6 11. Bg2 {wins a piece.}) 9... e3 {This is a serious miscalculation.}
(9... Nc6 10. fxe4 Nxe4 11. Ngxe4 O-O-O {Black has equalized.}) 10. Qxe3+ Be7
11. Bc4 Qc5 12. Qxc5 Bxc5 {With the Qs off the board it looks like black
should be able to defend himself without too much trouble, but white still has
a very strong attack.} 13. Nde4 Nxe4 14. fxe4 {Allowing black to trade Ns with
14.Nxe4 is weaker.} Bg4 15. h3 Bh5 16. Ne6 {The fatal blow. It shows why 14.
Nxe4 was weaker.} Bf7 17. Nxg7+ (17. Nxc5 {is good, but the text is even
better.} Bxc4 18. Nxb7 {would also be decisive.}) 17... Kf8 {The rest of the
game is a mopping up exercise.} 18. Rf1 Kxg7 19. Rxf7+ Kg6 20. Rf5 {Forget the
c-Pawn! Bird is going after black's K.} Bd4 21. c3 Bf6 22. Rf3 {[%mdl 32]} Na6
{This loses instantly, but the best he could hope for is to hold out with 22...
Bh4+ and then get ground down.} (22... Bh4+ 23. Ke2 Nc6 24. Bf7+ Kg7 25. Be3
Rad8 26. Raf1 {Black is quite lost.}) 23. Rg3+ Kh5 (23... Bg5 24. Rxg5+ Kf6 25.
e5+ Ke7 26. Rg7+ Ke8 27. Bg5 {Black has avoided getting mated...for now.}) 24.
Bf7+ Kh4 25. Rg4# {Sharp play by Bird.} 1-0
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