The fair place to meet is Kansas City, MO — the city closest to the midpoint of Albuquerque and Chicago. From the farther side that’s about 15 hr 6 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Kansas City, MO
From Albuquerque
15 hr 6 min
720 mi to Kansas City
From Chicago
8 hr 39 min
412 mi to Kansas City
Chicago has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 6 hr 27 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Albuquerque and Chicago are about 1,128 miles apart.
Albuquerque and Chicago are about 1,128 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Kansas City, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 15 hr 6 min of driving on the Albuquerque side and 8 hr 39 min on the Chicago side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Kansas City still makes a fair, central place for Albuquerque and Chicago to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Kansas City doesn't have what you're after, Omaha and Oklahoma City are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Albuquerque and Chicago.
Kansas City, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by both population and area. It is located on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River, within Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties. Read more →
Albuquerque is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Founded in 1706 as La Villa de Alburquerque by Santa Fe de Nuevo México governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, and named in honor of Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque… Read more →
Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the third-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 2.74 million at the 2020 census. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.