František Zíta (29 November 1909 – 1 October 1977) was a Czech chess master who was born and died in Prague.[1]
Zíta played for Czechoslovakia in Chess Olympiads:
He won the individual silver medal at Buenos Aires 1939.[2]
During World War II, he tied for 4-5th in Bohemia and Moravia Championship at Rakovnik 1940 (Jan Foltys won),[3] shared 4th at Chocen 1942 (Miroslav Katětov won), tied for 4-5th at Prague 1942 (Duras Jubileé, Alexander Alekhine and Klaus Junge won),[4] won at Prague 1943 (B&M-ch), tied for 4-5th at Zlín 1943 (Čeněk Kottnauer won).[5]
After the war, he shared 11th at Prague 1946 (Treybal Memorial, Miguel Najdorf won),[6] shared 1st in Czechoslovak Chess Championship at Bratislava 1948 but lost a play-off match for the title to Emil Richter, took 17th at Karlovy Vary 1948 (Foltys won),[7] took 16th at Szczawno Zdrój 1950 (Paul Keres won),[8] took 3rd at Prague 1953 (CSR-ch, Luděk Pachman won), shared 13th at Mariánské Lázně / Prague 1956 (Miroslav Filip won),[9] took 10th at Sofia 1957 (zonal, Filip won).[10] Zita played in the 1957 European Team Championship[11] where the Czech team won the bronze medal.[12]
Zíta was awarded the International Master (IM) title in 1950.[1]