CroatiaVjekoslav Nemec is a 27-year-old electrical engineer from Zagreb, Croatia, who is a very big chess enthusiast, writer, player and devotee.
His father taught him the rules of the game at the age of 5. Even though his father never played chess seriously, Vjeko soon found worthy opponents in the form of his cousin and uncle -roughly 1st category players – who never missed an opportunity to beat him during the annual family gatherings. The latter is particularly responsible that Vjeko got ‘hooked’ because he managed to convey his boundless enthusiasm and passion for the game.
Alas, despite being surrounded by chess from his earliest days, Vjeko never actually joined the chess club or played seriously until the age of 19 (if we disregard online blitz sessions on the “old” websites Playchess and Chesscube). After an accidental encounter with a chess arbiter at a pub quiz, he joined his first chess club and played in his first over-the-board tournament.
Over the course of the next 8-years, he would reach a peak rating of 2202 and gain the Candidate Master title. He is currently not playing as much due to other obligations, but he does hope to change that at some point in the future and fulfill his long-standing wish of becoming a FIDE Master.
As for his non-playing chess-related activities, it all started back in 2016. Very soon after finishing his university studies and getting his first (and current) job in an electrical engineering company, Vjeko started asking himself the eternal “Is there all there is?” question. Three months after graduation, in November 2016, he founded his chess blog Chessentials. Ever since he has been quite engaged as a chess writer and has also dabbed into chess streaming and Youtube video making.
Miraculously, the foundation of Chessentials somehow coincided with the transformation of the U.S. Chess League and the beginning of the first inaugural season of the Pro Chess League (PCL) in January 2017. As a chess fan, Vjeko was very excited about the format of the PCL and the prospects of chess as an E-Sport. After the end of the season, he realized he would very much like to become a part of the PCL and that having a team from Zagreb would be a big deal for the state of Croatian Chess (during the first three seasons of the Pro Chess League, teams were formed on the basis of city, and not country).
In 2017, he organized a number of Croatian and non-Croatian players and founded the Zagreb Chessentials team, which competed in the qualifiers for the Pro Chess League 2018 (without particular success) and for the Pro Chess League 2019 (when the team came much closer to qualifying but ultimately failed).
After the new format of the Pro Chess League 2020 has been announced, Vjeko was on the verge of giving it all up because he thought the new changes (removal of the rating cap for the teams and the possibility to have two free-agent players instead of one) would favor the ‘big teams’. Fortunately, an email exchange with the commissioner Greg Shahade and constant support from IM Leon Livaić managed to change his mind. After an extensive period of searching for players and numerous emails, he managed to recruit IM Tuan Minh Le and IM Jadranko Plenča. Together with IMs Leon Livaić and Sven Tica, this young team managed to defy all odds and overcome the heavily favored Azeri and Latvian team, creating one of the biggest upsets in the history of the entire Pro Chess League.
Thus, starting from the season 2020, Vjeko’s dream has become true!
Croatia has a team in the Pro Chess League!
You can read more about the history of Croatia Bulldogs on our About page.
You can read more about the history of the Pro Chess League on the About Pro Chess League page.
You can read more about Vjeko on the About page of his blog Chessentials or in this Quora answer where he describes his chess journey.