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I am immensely saddened to report the passing of my long time friend Brian Kerr (1944-2014) who played for Ireland at the Havana Olympiad in 1966. Brian was born in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, represented his country at junior level, playing in the Glorney Cup in 1962, and went on to play for Cambridge University.
Latterly he was a regular player for Wood Green for many years and took an interest in chess problems, competing in the British Solving Championship a couple of times. Brian was a Cambridge mathematician as was his twin brother. They were both entered for the Cambridge entrance exam by their head teacher as he thought that "if they take one they might just decide to take you both" and that's exactly what happened. At the point the brothers got to Cambridge their paths diverged a little as Brian’s brother put it in his eulogy: "I went on to do a maths degree with a bit of chess on the side, Brian did a chess degree with a bit of maths on the side".
The top diagram on the right is from Okike–Kerr, London League 1995. 36...Qg4! (White must exchange queens or lose c2 but it falls later anyway) 37.Qxg4 fxg4 38.Bf4+ Kd7 39.Rc1 Ke6 40.h3 gxh3 41.gxh3 Nb4 (Creating two connected passed pawns) 42.h4 Bxc2 43.h5 Nd3 44.Rxc2 Nxf4 45.h6 d3! (2nd diagram) 46.h7 (46.Rxc3 d2) 46...dxc2 47.h8Q c1Q+ 48.Kf2 Qd2+ 49.Kf3 Nd5 50.Qc8+ Kd6 51.Qf8+ Kc6 52.Qe8+ Kb7 53.Qf7+ Nc7 54.Qe7 c2 55.Qe4+ Qd5 0-1.