1/6/2026 – Lilit Mkrtchian analyzes a complex and instructive game she played against 17-year-old Georgian rising star Anastasia Gad at the European Women’s Championship, showing how deep opening preparation and understanding of pawn structures gave her an early, lasting advantage. She explains her use of ChessBase to study her opponent’s tendencies, deliberately steering the game into a Slav-type structure with colours reversed, where her opponent made subtle inaccuracies that allowed Lilit to build pressure and play comfortably. Despite time trouble and a tense middlegame with aggressive counterplay, Lilit kept control, found precise tactical solutions, and ultimately converted her advantage, highlighting how opening knowledge, planning, and calm decision-making decide high-level games.

1/1/2026 – This interview introduces Anastasia Corotcova as a member of the ChessBase team, sharing how she grew into chess through her grandmother, an international arbiter, before choosing an IT career while staying closely connected to chess. She talks about her work as an arbiter, a fun kids-tournament anecdote, and her experience creating a weekly TV chess show for children. The final part is a lighthearted rapid-fire Q&A that reveals her personality, interests, and everyday habits.

12/31/2025 – This “Best of 2025” episode is a year-end tactics celebration where Svitlana reviews the coolest moments of the chess year by turning them into a guess-the-move challenge for viewers. The WIM works through several sharp positions from major events (including the Global Chess League, World Cup, Grand Swiss, and Prague Chess Festival), featuring wild sacrifices, mating nets, and one especially memorable queen-sac idea in a Petroff line. Happy new year!

12/29/2025 – This video is a valuable chess lesson by IM Mkrtchian. Watch Lilit walk through a full "real tournament" prep routine in ChessBase 26. Find out how she scouts an opponent in the Mega Database, predict their openings, and steer the game into a line she specifically prepared. The payoff: a sharp Rossolimo move-order trap explained in a super teachable way, plus how she converts the advantage into a clean endgame win.

12/29/2025 – This end-of-year edition of the Monthly Dragon with Chris Ward wraps up 2025 by diving deep into early deviations against the Sicilian Dragon, with a special focus on the tricky and provocative Knight d5 idea. Ward explains why grabbing the e4-pawn is often a trap, illustrates the dangers with classic games and sharp tactical examples, and shares practical recommendations for Dragon players to stay calm and choose safer setups like …Nxd5 or …Bg7. Blending serious opening theory with anecdotes, humour, and historical games, the episode delivers a memorable “anti-Christmas variation” lesson to take into the new year. | Photo: John Upham

12/24/2025 – This video is a valuable chess lesson by IM Mkrtchian. Watch Lilit walk through a full “real tournament” prep routine in ChessBase 26. Find out how she scouts an opponent in the Mega Database, predict their openings, and steer the game into a line she specifically prepared. The payoff: a sharp Rossolimo move-order trap explained in a super teachable way, plus how she converts the advantage into a clean endgame win.

11/29/2025 – Robert Ris showcases José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara’s stunning World Cup win with Black against Super GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, starting from a sharp opposite-castling Philidor-type position in which White unleashes a powerful kingside attack, including an exchange sacrifice on d5 and the pawn storm with h5–h6, while Black searches for counterplay on the queenside. Ris explains how key defensive resources completely turn the tables, leading to a direct attack on the white king.

11/27/2025 – Today, Svitlana teaches us about the Immortal Game by Carl Schlechter. If a game is called an "immortal game", you can expect some sensational tactics. Another thing what makes this game exceptional is the opening choice of 1.b4. According to the new ChessBase opening report, the Sokolsky Opening, also known as the Orangutan and the Polish Opening, is getting less, and less fashionable in the last years. But 1.b4 had its peak from 2009 to 2011!

11/25/2025 – In this episode, Arne briefly “takes over” the Monthly Dragon and, together with Chris, uses ChessBase 26’s new Opening Report to explore the history and current relevance of major Dragon and Dragadorf setups, checking how fashionable they are today across different rating levels. They showcase the tactics feature on Dragon positions, with Chris solving sharp combinations live and demonstrating how ChessBase automatically extracts tactical exercises from large databases. The show culminates in an instructive 1951 Averbakh Dragon game, where a dynamic pawn sacrifice and queenside pressure lead to a superior rook endgame. | Photo: John Upham

11/22/2025 – Svitlana dedicates the episode to the memory of Daniel “Danya” Naroditsky, whose impact as a player, coach, and communicator reached far beyond the chessboard. She explores one of his favourite ideas in the Four Knights Opening - the powerful Nd5!, a move Danya loved to highlight for its elegance and instructional value. This episode blends clear educational insight with a heartfelt tribute, showing how Danya’s creative spirit continues to inspire players through the ideas he championed.

11/10/2025 – Svitlana explores the theme of “invisible moves” — creative, hard-to-spot ideas that suddenly make everything work. By looking for checks, deflections, and quiet improving moves, players can uncover the beauty of ideas that seem “invisible” at first glance.

10/29/2025 – In this second October Monthly Dragon, Chris Ward let Arne pick two games. Game 1 (Yugoslav, Chinese variation) shows classic opposite-wing play, while Game 2 (Yugoslav, with g3) is a model Dragon win. The episode highlights practical Dragon themes—pawn sacs on the queen side, neutralizing Bh6 ideas, pinned-knight motifs on d5, and the power of coordinated rooks and queen on the b-file. | Photo: John Upham

10/26/2025 – Any idea how long the longest recorded chess game was? How many moves were played? It was the year 1989 when Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović played stunning 269 moves! Not only that, the game was also very interesting, as Svitlana demonstrates in this episode. But, there was actually a second game, which was even longer!

10/24/2025 – Exactly one year ago, Robert Ris released an Underdog episode titled: 9-Year-Old Girl Defeats WIM Mariam Mkyrtchyan. Now, that same girl—Bodhana Sivanandan—is 10 years old, and once again finds herself the underdog, this time facing none other than GM Mariya Muzychuk! It appears that opponents whose names include the letters “MKYC” and “H” tend to inspire brilliancies from Bodhana. The young English prodigy is clearly on a mission to make sure that by 2026, no one will dare call her an underdog any more.

10/12/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko and Arne analyze a classic 1991 game between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, inspired by their current exhibition match. They explore the tactical richness of the Sicilian Taimanov, focusing on key moments like Kasparov's brilliant knight sacrifice on b5 and his creative attacking manoeuvres leading to a decisive win. The discussion highlights Kasparov’s precision, Anand’s resilience, and the timeless instructive value of their games for learning dynamic chess play.

10/10/2025 – The delayed September edition reviews a single slow-play game in the mainline Sicilian Dragon, Yugoslav Attack with Bc4 and 10.Bb3. Chris outlines White’s three plans: all-out h4–h5, positional a4, or the “halfway house”, and shows the typical imbalances after Bxe6 followed by fxe6 and the tactical motif Rb4. But, our viewers have to be strong, since this episode it is White who actually wins | Photo: John Upham

9/16/2025 – On 12 September, the sixth edition of the popular simultaneous chess series "Grandmaster Meets Amateurs" took place in the café of the Salzgitter-Bad Grammar School – featuring a world-class player: GM Ivan Sokolov. The Dutch-Bosnian grandmaster faced 31 opponents and showed an impressive form, scoring 30½–½. Only Jannes Haverlandt managed to withstand the pressure and secure a draw – surely an admirable achievement.

9/15/2025 – In this episode, Svitlana Demchenko explores bishop vs. knight endgames, showing when each piece can be stronger depending on pawn structure and king activity. Bishops excel with play on both sides of the board and outside passed pawns, while knights perform better in closed or narrow positions and against pawns fixed on the bishop’s colour. Classic examples, including Karpov and Kasparov, highlight practical rules and surprising techniques, like sacrificing pawns to open king entry routes.