Tihomil Drezga

Who was Tihomil Drezga?

Tihomil Drezga was a Croatian chess master.

He was born in Šibenik, Croatia, and graduated from a gymnasium in Split. Then he studied international law at the Sorbonne in Paris and received a doctorate of law.

In 1927/28, he won in the Lites Chess Club in Paris, followed by Josef Cukierman, Vitaly Halberstadt, Victor Kahn, etc.; won two games for French team in 2nd Chess Olympiad at The Hague 1928; tied for 6-7th in the 4th Paris City Chess Championship 1928, and won, ahead of Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, in the 5th Paris-ch 1929.

After spending some years in France, Dr Drezga returned to Croatia. He took 2nd at Zagreb 1934, took 9th at Maribor 1934, and took 2nd, behind Petar Trifunović, at Zagreb 1935.

During World War II, he was a professor at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb from 1943 to 1945. After the war, he illegally emigrated to Italy in 1947, and then to the United States. He died in Erie, Pennsylvania.