The "Yellow Button" was a pin worn in the hats of Chinese imperial officials to indicate high rank in the civil service.
The Boston Mandarins were a group of chess players in the late 19th century, including John Finan Barry, L. Dore, C. F. Burille, F. H. Harlow, Dr. Edward Mowry Harris, C. F. Howard, Major Otho Ernst Michaelis, General William Cushing Paine, Dr. H. Richardson, C. W. Snow, Henry Nathan Stone, Franklin Knowles Young, and Preston Ware.
He finished in sixteenth place of eighteen scoring a total of 11 points out of 34, but he did beat Max Weiss and the winner of the tournament, Wilhelm Steinitz[4] in a game lasting 113 moves.
[5] At the time, Steinitz had not lost or drawn a game for nine years prior to this tournament[3] and was the unofficial World Champion.
(It had originally been played by Alexander McDonnell against Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in 1834.