Berry, who learned the game at 11, defeated Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres at a simultaneous exhibition in Vancouver when he was 14.

[2] A formative influence was Elod Macskasy, who in the late 1960s mentored a group of young masters that included Berry, Robert Zuk, Bruce Harper, Peter Biyiasis, and Duncan Suttles.

[3] Berry represented the University of British Columbia at the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championships, Montreal 1969; he graduated from UBC in 1973.

At 16, he had a solid result of tied fourth with 6.5/10 at the 1970 Canadian Open Chess Championship in St. John's; Bent Larsen won.

Berry played his first Canadian Closed Chess Championship at Toronto 1972, and finished in the middle of a strong field, scoring 8.5/17; Peter Biyiasas won.

In 1975, Berry scored 9/15 at the Canadian Closed / Zonal in Calgary, Alberta, missing the International Master norm by one point; Biyiasas repeated as champion.

[5] Filling-in on the Canadian team for the 1982 Lucerne Chess Olympiad due to a family emergency of one of the players, Berry played two games on second reserve board, drawing both of them.

Based upon these four major events, FIDE awarded him the International Arbiter title in 1975; at 22, he was the youngest ever at that time.

From 1994-99, he was head arbiter for the North Bay International Open series of six tournaments, which averaged over 250 players.