Josef Tarnawski 90th birthday celebration –
Four members
past and present of The Gap Chess Club had the honour of attending the
celebration of Josef Tarnawski’s
90th birthday at the Ashgrove Golf Club: Mark Winn, Phillip Kirkman,
Brian Willcock and Andrew Robinson.
Josef, known at
the club as Joe, was instrumental in the early days of our club in the late
1960s and early 1970s.
When he joined
the club, Joe already had a strong chess pedigree which included a win over the
Soviet Grandmaster
and Moscow City Champion Alexander Kotov in 1963 in a
simul.
Perhaps Joe’s
greatest chess triumph was his triple crown of Queensland Lightning
Championship in 1971, 1972 and 1973,
which allowed him to keep the Frank Pugh Trophy awarded at the time for this
competition by the CAQ.
Joe had a busy
career in property development and only returned to our chess club in 1989. He
was then a club regular between
1992 and 1998,
a period he dominated over the chessboard with an awesome reputation for both
skilful play and fairness.
Joe’s record at
our club is covered in other areas of this website, but it was the great spirit and enthusiasm in which he played
the game which is remembered by those who played at the club in the 1990s.
It was
brilliant to hear Joe relate to us how he beat Kotov,
the game coming alive as he spoke. And how he continues to love the
game of chess
Happy Birthday
Joe!!