Croatia Bulldogs

Today, at 20.30 CEST, a blitz match between two members of the Croatia Bulldogs, IM Leon Livaić and GM Nikola Nestorović will be held. They will both be streaming their matches on their respective Twitch channels: Leon - m.twitch.tv/imleonlivaic Nikola - twitch.tv/storm89

This gentleman is Henri Le Comte, and he was President of the Swiss Chess Federation back in the sixties. At 92 years old, he remains as sharp as ever, showing off a great memory, a good sense of humor, and a profound love for chess.

The action in the Pro Chess League continues today with the first playoff match between Canada Chessbrahs and Sweden Wasabis. Go Ivan Šarić! All matches are interesting, but the definite treat is Wednesday's clash between France Roosters and New York Marshalls (Nakamura vs. MVL)!

Tuan Minh Le just doesn't stop. 2nd place in the February 2020 edition of Lichess titled arena, behind only the indomitable Firouzja Alireza, in front of Dmitry Andreikin, Andrew Tang and a bunch of other grandmasters! Congratulations!

Now that the PRO Chess League season is over, our players have time to pursue other endeavours. GM Nikola Nestorović has plans to become more active on the youtube/Twitch scene. I enjoyed this blitz session very much! youtube.com/watch?v=xg5t_j…

My dad, Croatia Bulldogs member Leon Livaić, is doing great in the ongoing Graz Open tournament. 6/7, a share of first place and a GM-norm worth 2727 performance. I don't want to jinx him, but I hope he can carry on that momentum in the last 2 rounds. Go, Leon!

We will be back to avenge our losses in 2021. Until then - time to enjoy the playoffs from the perspective of a fan and root for the remaining Croat in the lineup. Go Canada Chessbrahs! 2/2

With our yesterday's loss to China Pandas, our Pro Chess League season has officially ended. It was fun and exciting journey.The final result is a bit discouraging, but with some more luck, it could have been better. 1/2

Check out all the potential #prochess playoff scenarios. Also @anishgiri and @DingLiren make their debuts this week chess.com/news/view/pro-…

@nigarhan Also, I was thinking - would you be interested in doing a written interview? I have done some in the past for my blog and would be really interested to hear your story about how you got into chess and your perspective on the chess world. (Wanted to message but disabled :D).

After the game analysis and Q&A, I was preparing to end the stream, but then got raided by the amazing manager of the Turkey Knights @nigarhan. At her request, we also played a bullet match, after which I got myself a new/old dad. THANKS, Naycir! :D youtube.com/watch?v=1gdOJt…

@nigarhan Haha just pulling your leg like my chat is constantly pulling mine - I saw you are quite engaged with the Cairns Cup, I CAN IMAGINE IT IS ON THE TOP OF YOUR PRIORITIES :D. I'd be very happy to do something like that in the future :)

@nigarhan As for college expenses, I am a chess player not sure what exactly do you expect. I might ask my dad Leon to lend me some money, though :P

@nigarhan Very painful. I actually once saw this happen in blitz over the board game :D

"That feeling when you are about to adopt your team manager for the 2nd time in the last 6 months" Guess who just kicked himself out of the Croatia Bulldogs team for the next year! 😡 😡

After our match against Armenia Eagles, IM Leon Livaić joined the stream to analyze his games and did a quick Q&A afterward. It was really humbling and instructive to hear his thought about the games and to realize how far some of my evaluations have been. Thanks Leon!

Last but not least - Ante Šarić's clash with Martirosyan was another fantastic tactical melee where the board went on fire. Alas, it ended tragically for us (although even without the Botez Gambit, Ante's position was lost):