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Checker
Game Champion
Charles Francis Barker
Another early American champion in the game
of checkers dominated by players from Scotland
and England was Charles
Francis Barker. He played many of
the great checker players from Great Britain
and other talented players within the sport
in America. Charles Francis Barker was
perhaps best known as "Stonewall" Barker.
Charles Barker’s checker games record
includes two World Championship matches in
which neither James
Wyllie nor Richard
Jordan could
beat him. Charles Barker was a gifted and
insightful checker player, whose game thrived
on new opposition. Charles Francis Barker
was the American Checker Champion at different
times throughout his checkers career. His
skill and tenacity assisted him in placing
second highest player on the American team
in the First International Match in 1905
with a plus score of five wins and three
losses. This result was a solid success for
Barker as his team played against one of
the strongest teams of checker masters ever
assembled at any tournament. The British
team was comprised of both the Scottish and
English teams of checkers game masters and
consisted of four World Champions and various
checkers masters who had been English and
Scottish Champions. Set against such formidable
opponents, Barker’s win displayed a
commendable effort on the checkerboard.
Charles Francis Barker was known as one of the
early great American checker players, who crowned
his long checkers career by winning the first
ever held American National Tournament in 1905.
During this checkers game tournament match, he
defeated long time nemesis, A. J. Heffner, in
the finals, and some have said that this could
easily be known as ‘their
last battle’ of the many wars they were
both involved in ‘over-the-board’.
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