4/14/2024 – Anish Giri's Opening Fritztrainer's are available 18th of April. But we added a sneak peek to his take on the Caro-Kann and King's Indian openings. Since this is still quite a new feature, we made a video which explains the setup in just 3 minutes.

4/12/2024 – Arne recently played in a chess tournament, and one of his opponents played the unusual 1.f4, which was quite a surprise. Sadly, he didn't film this Smart Moves episode before the tournament, to get to know the surprising answer Nh6!? The so called - Horsefly Defence in the Bird Opening. Even the engines think that this counter is absolutely legit, and the Mega Database shows excellent results as well. Svitlana shows, why it is a powerful move!

4/8/2024 – This is a summary of the first week of Arne's daily chess studies. He enjoys the liberty to pick his learning resources as he pleases. His focus was on revisiting the foundational principles of endgames and exploring an entirely new opening that he had previously not ventured into: The Sicilian Dragon. Additionally, one of the Fritztrainers caught him off guard with its exceptional quality, exceeding all his expectations!

4/2/2024 – Svitlana dug deep to find some outstanding, beautiful tactics, by all the men's and women's candidates, who will compete in Toronto soon. Arne is trying hard to solve all the puzzles, and get 8 out of 8 in both videos. Will he succeed? And how will you do, dear viewer? These two videos are the perfect start to get into the mood for the candidates tournament!

3/19/2024 – The famous Reykjavík Open is up and running, and ready for some surprises. Popular streamer Alexandra Botez managed to win against a South African opponent rated almost 400 Elo points higher than her! In the French Defence, her opponent played the MacCutcheon, which was covered by Robert Ris in ChessBase Magazine 198, and his Fast and Furious show (Links below). In the wild game, with several sacrifices, Alexandra converted the endgame in her favour.

3/16/2024 – No tournament player can do without the ChessBase Mega Database. But what do you need to know when setting it up on your PC? ChessBase expert Thomas Stark and Arne Kaehler show you everything you need to know about the new Mega Database 2024: Finding the best games, annotated games, and ChessBase magazine articles.

3/14/2024 – This episode was lost in the depths of 2023, but luckily returned! The Gruenfeld is a very hyper-modern opening, which gives White the centre, while Black has to fight around the flanks. If Black knows the opening well, White has a difficult time gaining some advantage. But with an example game from Vincent Keymer, the move "h4" is a beautiful way to attack the Black pieces. Svitlana shows us how to master this idea.

3/10/2024 – The Carlsbad Pawn structure, or formation, is normally deriving from the Queen's Gambit declined, London System, or the Caro-Kann. A common structure, which actually has some ideas, and plans to accomplish. Svitlana tells us, what the major plans are for White, and Black, by showing us two example games. One of them is Garry Kasparov vs. Nigel Short!

3/8/2024 – Chess players have certainly heard of Daniel Fernandez, who has already published a couple of Fritztrainers for ChessBase. But recently, non-chess players also got to know him because of a YouTube video with the title - "We Used An Adult Toy To Beat A Chess Grandmaster". How did this video happen? Are chess players cheating more often nowadays? And why can Daniel speak at least five languages, and helped out in a koala sanctuary? This, and many more questions, you can see in the interview with the English Grandmaster.

2/29/2024 – In the latest episode of "The Underdog," we have a monumental moment in chess history, where 8-year-old Ashwath Kaushik shattered expectations by defeating a grandmaster in a classical chess game. Despite the crazy rating difference of almost 500 points, Ashwath demonstrated remarkable skill and strategic finesse. IM Robert Ris provides a comprehensive analysis of the game, breaking down the critical moves and strategies that led to this young prodigy's incredible victory.

2/24/2024 – The Methodical Attacking Principles within certain pawn structures hold high importance. From the opening to the middlegame, the patterns, plans, and theories derived from our initial pawn moves necessitate different actions. Those who frequently play the Queen's Gambit likely have a better understanding of an isolated pawn compared to aficionados of the Ruy Lopez. Svitlana discusses an excellent game by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, highlighting how he gradually leverages his pawn structure advantage for an unstoppable attack.

2/19/2024 – The experiment of preparing to win a tournament as the lowest rated player in just 30 days is running, and the first week started. ChessBase content manager Arne has to start somewhere. But where? By writing a Masterplan! With this, he can concentrate on tactics, openings, middlegames, and endgames for the upcoming weeks. Furthermore, Arne chooses 40 Fritztrainers, fools around with ChessBase 17, and the Mega Database, to study all of his opponents in the tournament!

2/13/2024 – Month by month, we learn how to master, and tame the powerful Dragon, with Dragon expert Chris Ward. But do you know what's really annoying? When nobody wants to accept the Dragon against you! Chris heard all of your cries for help, and made a special episode of the basics, ideas, plans, traps, and more for plenty of Anti-Sicilians, and other openings, which try to dodge our beloved Sicilian Dragon. A "Must Watch" episode for everyone, who experienced something similar. (And we know, you have ...) | Photo: John Upham

2/9/2024 – The Tata Steel 2024 tournament is over, and the masters tournament had at least one clear Underdog with Ju Wenjun, as the only player with a rating under 2600! But despite this setting, she won against the third highest rated player - Alireza Firouzja. Master coach Robert Ris describes perfectly well, why this happened, what went wrong for Alireza, and what Ju Wenjun accomplished delightfully.

2/2/2024 – With the stunning result of 5 out of 5 on board 1, Svitlana participated in the Canadian University Championship! One of her games included the Portuguese Variation in the Scandinavian Opening, which is "Svitlana's Smart Moves" most viewed episodes! She won against an FM, and her opponent was almost without a chance. Maybe, this opening is much better, than everybody thought?

1/26/2024 – This episode is a must-watch for every endgame beginner, and soon to be expert. Svitlana is presenting some essential endgame positions and how to deal with them. May it be rook vs. bishop, queen vs. rook, and other positions, which every chess player had on the board already, at least once in their life. Our advice: Use Fritz 19, and replay the positions from the replayer to actively learn the patterns you saw in this video.

1/19/2024 – No tournament player can do without the ChessBase Mega Database. But what do you need to know when setting it up on your PC? ChessBase expert Thomas Stark and Arne Kaehler show you everything you need to know about the new Mega Database 2024: Download, installation and, above all, the weekly game update, in which 5,000 new games are imported every week.

1/19/2024 – No, you haven't missed a game of the Tata Steel 2024. Svitlana decided to travel a year back in time, and analyse one of the most interesting games of the Dutch tournament, 2023. Interestingly, both protagonists - Gukesh D, and Praggnanandhaa - will face each other soon enough, again in Wijk aan Zee! This is a sweet teaser for their upcoming match-up.