The day a Russian Grandmaster was defeated in Brisbane

Ninety-three-year-old Josef Tarnawski, from The Gap, was Queensland’s “lightning chess” champion when he beat Russian Grandmaster Alexander Kotov as one of his 21 opponents in Brisbane in 1963.

Lightning chess, or “quick chess”, imposes a five minute timeframe on the game but this 1963 Brisbane chess game was a high-pressure international chess “simultaneous” competition.

Kotov at the time was in the world’s top 10 chess players and had been Moscow’s champion in 1941, 1948 and 1950.

He toured Australia in a series of championship and exhibition tournaments.

Mr Tarnawski defeated Kotov in Brisbane on October 6 , 1963 – in a building in Elizabeth Street…