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Monday, August 12, 2019

Dare D. Barkuloo et al

     In 2017, a restored historic mansion in Minneapolis sold for $1 million. The identity of the buyer and seller were hidden behind limited-liability corporation names. The home at 2115 Pillsbury Avenue was built in 1931, has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a four-car garage. It was also restored to include a new eat-in chef's kitchen. 
     The house was designed by the same architect who designed the Alfred Pillsbury home in Minneapolis. The Pillsbury Company was a Minneapolis, Minnesota based company that was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. C.A. Pillsbury and Company was founded in 1872 by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and his uncle John S. Pillsbury. 

    The million dollar home on Pillsbury Avenue hadn’t been built in 1911, but it was the street 14-year old Dare D. Barkuloo (February 11, 1897 – July 1, 1965, 68 years old) lived on when he played in the Western Championship in 1911 at the age of fourteen.
     Not much is known of Barkuloo except that he was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and moved to Minneapolis at the age of ten. He learned to play chess around the age of twelve, but wasn’t too interested in it until about a year and a half later when Capablanca visited the Minneapolis Chess Club in 1910. 
     In 1910, Barkuloo, described as a youthful prodigy, placed second in the city championship which had been won 14 times in a row by E.P. Elliott (1873 - 1955). Elliott was Western Chess Association champion in 1908 and 1912.
     The 1911 Western Championship was won by a young lawyer from Winnipeg, Canada named Charles Blake who won all of his games except for one which he lost to Elliott. Blake had been a strong contender for the title on several occasions, but this year was in exceptional form and played steady, strong chess. 
     Blake (June 12, 1880 - May 18, 1961, 80 years old) was born in London and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1903 before serving as a Major during World War One. He moved to Ontario by 1925 and later to White Rock, British Columbia. Blake was twice runner-up in the Canadian championship (1909 and 1913). 
     The former Danish player Einar Michelsen of Chicago finished a strong second. Michelsen won all of his games except two: he lost to Blake, but still could have tied him for first had it not been for a loss to H.F. Lee. See Einar Michelsen PART 1  PART 2
     Former champ Elliott was deprived of a second place tie when he lost to Wilfred Bland who finished well back. The fourth place finish of Harry Kline from Denver, Colorado was impressive because it was only his first tournament. 
     Harry Kline (June 10, 1888 – August 17, 1943) was born in Lithuania, Latvia, Russia or Lebanon, depending on the source. He arrived in the Boston, Massachusetts area around 1905. He attended, but didn’t finish, high school in Boston where he was one of the better players. After dropping out he moved around a lot. 
     The year 1911 found him in Denver, Colorado, but by 1913 he was a farmer in Dorchester, Massachusetts, but later the same year, at the age of 26, he was was in Queens. New York where he finished high school and passed the entrance examinations for the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia where he graduated with a BA degree in 1917. 
     By 1919 he graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as a veterinarian. He worked in St. Paul and Minneapolis and sometime around 1927 he moved his family to Queens, New York where he established his own veterinary practice. 
     After a stay in New Jersey (1933-1938) they moved back to New York (1938-1942). In 1942 he was appointed as professor of anatomy at the Middlesex University School of Veterinary Science in Boston. He died in Waltham, Massachusetts and was buried in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
     Kline had a lot of success in club play and major open tournaments. At the American National in 1913 he only scored +3 -7 =3, but won the speed tournament ahead of Frank Marshall. His last tournaments were the preliminaries of the 1936 (Philadelphia) and 1938 (Boston) US Open, but in both cases he failed to reach the finals. 
     The story of Murray Goldsmith (June 15, 1886 – January 22, 1912, 25 years old) was a sad one. He lived in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, class 1908. One of Ohio’s top players, Goldsmith was also a correspondence player and a problem composer and solver of considerable ability. 

   Here is a link to a letter from Goldsmith to the chess editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times, December 4, 1910, in which he laid claim to the Ohio Championship.  LINK
      For years he suffered from rheumatism, a disease marked by inflammation and pain in the joints, muscles, or fibrous tissue. At the age of 25 he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.     
     People were impressed with the play of Dare Barkuloo, mostly because he was so young, at least by the standards of that day. The 14-year old Barkuloo was in the 8th grade and lived with his mother and stepfather (his father had died), both of whom played chess. He had studied all the chess books in the public library which was reported to have quite a few. Barkuloo was noted for playing fast, too fast some thought, and he never showed signs of nervousness or fear. 
     Whatever happened to Dare Barkuloo? Good question. The 1951 Chess Life rating list (the only old one I have) doesn’t show a Barkuloo and chessgames.com shows only two tournaments that he played in: the Western in 1911 and 1915. Two other games played in 1921 are given, both against Reshevsky: draw in a simul and a loss in an exhibition game. 
     An ad appearing in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 20, 1921, states that Reshevsky was to play an exhibition game against Barkuloo, the State Champion. The game was to be played with Reshevsky sitting on a pony (!) and school boys in costume as living chessmen on a 24 foot square board. Reshevsky won a R and P ending. 
     Barkuloo won the Minnesota State Championship in 1914, 1917, 1918, 1921 and 1924. His five wins puts him in 7th place for the most Minnesota championship titles. Curt Brasket with 16 titles is the all time leader. 
Harry F. Lee
      Harry F. Lee (January 24, 1855 - May 29, 1917) was a prominent Chicago player and served as editor of the chess cloumn of the Chicago Tribune from 1912 to 1917 and was TD and secretary of the Western Chess Association.

Final standings:
1) C. Blake 12.0-1.0 
2) E. Michelsen 11.0-2.0 
3) E.P. Elliott 10.0-3.0 
4) H. Kline 8.5-4.5 
5) M. Goldsmith 8.0-5.0 
6) J.L. Clark 7.5-5.5 
7-8) A. Blieden and E. Schrader 7.0-6.0 
9-10) H.F. Lee and W. Widmeyer 5.5-7.5 
11-12) D. Barkuloo and W. Bland 4.0-9.0 1
3) C.S. Cooper 1.0-12.0 
14) J.F. Seymour 0.0-13.0 
Note: Seymour lost “about” four games and withdrew. Thus, Cooper’s only point was a forfeit win against Seymour. 

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