Brian McCarthy, a Life Master and one-time Senior Master has passed away after losing his fight with brain cancer. Brian was a force in southeast chess for many years, and a prolific teacher both in person and online, with over 3000 lessons at ICC. His obituary may be found here:
I am sure that this is the guy I played in the last round of the Continental Open in Buffalo in 1989. Interesting game, which I lost. We were sitting next to the game Kamsky-Nickoloff. It was 15-year-old Gata Kamsky’s first tournament in the US.
But, I can’t find McCarthy in MSA, even though he should be there, since the obituary says he earned his SM rating in 1992. I wonder what’s the matter.
embedded spaces make searches tough
uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?11060871
In the 80s I used to go to Merrill Lynch’s employee cafeteria at their main headquarters in NYC most lunch times and play chess there. There was a young guy named Brian McCarthy who was a USCF master who worked in the mail room at Merrill and who occasionally played in the cafeteria at lunch time . I suspect it is probably the same Brian cited here and he was working his way through college at the time. Very sorry to read this
I can remember Brian making fun of me in the sense that he would always offer me time odds of typically 5 minutes to 1, and the majority of the time, he defeated me often and I think 1 day, I beat him with those odds 19 out of 20 times, and he did not offer me that challenge again. I remember that he did have an off beat sense of humor, and the last time I saw him was at the 1998 US Amateur Team Championship here in NJ, and in his last round game, he played against former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov. Really going to miss Brian and I definitely respected him, and hopefully, I gained his respect as a fellow competitor as well. RIP, Brian and my condolences go out to his family during this difficult time.
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member