Croatian Tennis Legend Ivan Ljubičić Plays Chess

#agadmator Ivan Ljubičić, born 19 March 1979) is a retired Croatian professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on May 1, 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand Slam semifinal at the 2006 French Open, and a ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Indian Wells Masters in 2010 as well as 3 other finals, 2 of them coming in 2005 at Madrid and Paris, and the other at the Miami Masters in 2006.

Since retiring, Ljubičić has coached ATP top 3 players Milos Raonic and Roger Federer. He was credited with Federer's improved backhand, especially evident on high shots, and tactical change of taking shots much earlier, taking more time, pace, and rhythm off his opponents at the same time making his overall game more offensive.

Igor Rosior vs Ivan Ljubičić
Van't Kruijs Opening (A00)

1. e3 d5 2. d4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. h3 Bd6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. a3 Bd7 7. Bd2 O-O 8. Nb5 Be7 9. Ne5 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Ne8 11. f4 f6 12. Bc3 a6 13. Nd4 fxe5 14. fxe5 Bg5 15. Qe2 Bh6 16. O-O-O Qg5 17. Nf3 Qxe3+ 18. Qxe3 Bxe3+ 19. Kb1 c5 20. Bd2 Bxd2 21. Rxd2 c4 22. Rd4 Nc7 23. Rh4 b5 24. Ng5 h6 25. Nf3 a5 26. Nd4 b4 27. axb4 axb4 28. g4 Rf4 29. Ne2 Re4 30. Rh2 Rxe5 31. Nc1 Re1 32. Be2 b3 33. Rg2 Ra1+ 34. Kxa1 Rxc1#

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[sameetkhadka]

Fan of chess and tennis
And you give me a game by ljubicic this is INCREDIBLE

[kylejohnson]

Agadmator, I have been watching your videos for over a year now and they've inspired me to play more chess. I've always been decent and was in the chess club, which my dad ran, in middle school. This weekend my dad visited me up in college and I beat him 3/5 games with 1 loss and 1 draw. I had never beaten him before and this was the first time we'd played in about 8 months. Long story short: thank you, Agadmator, for helping me kick my dad's ass 3 times!

[yitzchaksviridyuk]

Agadmator, I'd love to agree with you about the "he who says he doesn't enjoy chess is lying or doesn't know the rules", but I have to disagree. xD
My father is very good at chess, but he really doesn't enjoy it. lol

He was born in the USSR. A little story about him is that when he was around 10, he came down with pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. He was there for around a month and didn't have much to do, so he started watching the older patients in the hospital play chess. Eventually, he joined them. Before long, the whole hospital was buzzing about the kid who was beating all the patients. Everyday for some time, there was a line of people waiting to play him. Apparently the head doctor at this hospital was quite a chess player himself, so he decided to have a game against my father. If I'm not mistaken, my father beat him as well. xD (My father remembers him asking, "Hmm, playing the Sicilian Defense?" My father just told him, "I don't know. Looks like a good move.")
(EDIT: My father doesn't remember if he actually beat the doctor. Sorry about that. lol)

He went to learn chess at this Soviet school for a little while, but he quickly lost interest in the game. The reason is that he found a game which he considers far superior called "Go". He doesn't think chess has enough strategy, and he considers chess to be this sort of "tangled mess". He considers Go to be a far more beautiful game. He pursued Go for some time while he was still in the USSR, but he had to stop right before he made master because he was trying to get out of the USSR to get to the United States. He did get the equivalent of a sort of "candidate master" certificate in Go before leaving though.

Either way, I'm here watching your channel, because I love chess. xD
Just letting you know that there are people with deep backgrounds making it possible for them to, yes, not enjoy chess.
Love your videos Agadmator. Keep it up! :)

[limegreenelevator]

"you are an excellent checkmater in two" =)

[ivarkristoffersson]

Thanks!! Ljubovic and Federer!! Such a great companionship!!

[bradyrollins]

By far the best chess channel there is. This channel has made me take an interest in chess so thank you and keep up the uploads!

[drahmedisa]

I remember when he defeated nadal in indian wells it was an amazing match

[vaserilo]

love trying to figure out your puzzles man. thanks for always having good content for me to look forward to!

[schwindsichtigaderechte]

Very proud I solved the puzzles, your videos are highly educational.

[sttv]

Rating guess: white 1350, black 1550. It was interesting to watch a game where the players are not at the very highest skill levels.

[writeordie]

First Women's US Championship playoff round between Wang and Paikidze just finished, with some rather spectacular moves. Will you cover it, perhaps?

[radidkhan]

I'm guessing they're both around 1300-1450 elo

[richardsleep]

Thanks for the fun video as always. We look forward tp Ljubicic vs Federer at Chess. And vs. agadmator at tennis <G>

[freetobeme]

Please upload more streams. I've watched them all and love them!

[changotucumano]

Glad to see Ivan Ljubicic playing chess. I enjoyed him as a tennis player (what a service he had!). Now I discover that we have something else in common :-) I look forward for the match against Federer! Greetings from Argentina.

[shirishsharma]

I am big fan of Ivan and roger.and i love chess, nice combination.

[aleksapetrovic]

Dugo pratim ovaj kanal, ali tek sad sam shvatio da si iz Hrvatske:) Nema razloga da se mrzimo iz političkih razloga, bitno je da smo dobri ljudi! Svaka čast na odličnom kanalu, samo tako nastavi. Lepa partija, nisam znao da Ljubičić ovako dobro igra šah!

[djanatpour]

Great video as always!

#suggestion Perhaps you could do a few mini-series where you focus on some openings or systems and how their character as developed through the years? For example, you could do several videos on iconic games in the French Defense. Even 2-4 videos each in a handful of series (coupled with links to some of your existing videos that feature a particular opening, such as all the beautiful Caro-Kann in the 1960 World Championship) would be great!

[nickg]

154k holy smokes. I remember when. congrats and thanks for the vids. 1 mil by 2020

[vishalchavda]

Always Likes your videos before watching <3