English Chess Forum

Translated from Facebook:

"We regret to announce the death of the master Joanna Dworakowska.
Joanna Dworakowska was a three-time Polish Champion, legitimized herself with the title of grand champion and international champion.
In 2002, together with the Polish national team, she won a bronze medal at the Chess Olympiad.
Ms Joanna was a multi-medalist MP, six-time Olympian, three-time European Championships team medalist (gold medal in 2005).
In honor of her memory!"

Aged just 45, which to state the obvious is shockingly young.

That is terrible news - I played her once. She was a strong player and really nice person.

Joanna was my exact contemporary and our intermittent rivalry spanned almost three decades (she had a significant plus score against me). Although we encountered one another in some pretty critical matches in international competition, she was one of the most gracious and friendly of opponents. At her peak she was comfortably inside the world's top 50 women players. As well as the Olympiad and European Team medals mentioned in the Polish report, she also came very close to winning the World Girls' Championship in 1997, until yours truly overtook her at the end of a nailbiting two horse race. She will be greatly missed by the Polish chess community and by many friends around the world.