8/12/2022 – Lawrence has prepared some stunning tactics, played by the German legend Wolfgang Uhlmann. The French Defence expert was a masterful chess player for ages, and beat Bobby Fischer in 1960, with this very opening. We continue with our journey to reach a rating of 3000. Meanwhile, we are comfortably sitting around 2550.

8/5/2022 – Today, Lawrence and Arne are joined by German WIM Lara Schulze. She loves tactics, and we need help to reach the next chapter in our ChessBase tactics section - 2600. But sometimes, nightmares cross our path, and we have to think for much longer than expected. Join us in our Friday training, and sharpen your skills!

7/29/2022 – Anatoly Karpov was definitely not famous for his outrageous tactics, but when you have played hundreds, and thousands of games, you certainly have some tactical games up your sleeve. Lawrence found some interesting examples, and tough nuts to solve for you.

7/19/2022 – Today we take a look at a quite popular opening. The Pirc Defence. The opening was named after GM Vasja Pirc from Slovenia/Yugoslavia. Thanks to this opening, we were able to enjoy the Immortal game of Kasparov vs. Topalov, or game number 17 of Fischer vs. Spassky, in the World Championship match 1972 in Iceland. We also tackle the question, of how it is pronounced correctly - Pirk, or Pirch?

7/12/2022 – You didn't expect those creative, and beautiful moves, did you? Svitlana presents some genuinely fine moves by masterful players like Frank James Marshall, David Bronstein, Bobby Fischer, Pal Benko, Richard Reti, Alexander Alekhine, and Mikhail Tal. Lean back, and enjoy the spectacle!

7/8/2022 – Lawrence is sick, has no internet, is not even at home, but still commits to continuing "Trent's Tactics". Live from the beautiful Island of Corsica, The "soon-to-be" GM is trying to get back on track with his chess, by playing a tournament. One way to strengthen the current chess level is to train - Tactics! Danish Grandmaster Larsen knows this very well, and Lawrence shows us some of Bent Larsen's striking moves.

7/6/2022 – Svitlana unpacks beautiful opening traps, which don't check mate you in three moves, but simply give you enough advantage to win a game. The Canadian WIM chose commonly played openings, like the queen's gambit, or the Sicilian Defence. You might know about some traps already, but it is good to 1. Refresh the knowledge and 2. Find out even more variations of the tricky openings.

6/21/2022 – The Dutch GM was one of the strongest chess players in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Timman never feared complicated games, which gave him many opportunities to discover some brilliant tactics against players like Kasparov, Kamsky, Karpov, and Anand. Lawrence dives right into the business, and gives us the chance to find the tactical moves ourselves. Furthermore, can we uphold the rating of 2500 in our tactics section, or will something unexpected mess things up?

6/17/2022 – In middlegames, pieces often are scrambled all over the place. Svitlana shows us how to find out, which piece to move next, and where to move it to. Pawn structures start from an opening, and moving the correct piece in the middlegame has to start with an understanding of what you want to achieve with your position.

6/10/2022 – As promised last episode, we wanted to display the beautiful queen sacrifice by Lawrence Trent from the HSK Gm Invitational open. But the main part of today, is the legendary GM Alexander Kotov, which Arne didn't even know about before. The "Kotov Syndrome" is named after the Soviet Grandmaster, and it describes a situation, where you think about an important position for too long, not finding the winning move, and with little time left, make a blunder instead. Probably all of us have been there.

6/3/2022 – Leon Mendonca recently won the HSK GM Invitational tournament, with 7 out of 9. Lawrence Trent played in the very same tournament, and reached the 50% mark, with 4.5 out of 9. Their game ended in a draw. Since Leon was still in Hamburg, we managed to have a Trent's Tactics show together. Maybe Lawrence, and Arne, thanks to Leon, finally went beyond the ChessBase tactics training rating of 2500? But, perhaps it was actually a huge challenge? Watch the video to find out how it went.

5/26/2022 – Normally, we sacrifice a piece to win material, or even set up a check-mate attack. But occasionally, we can also sacrifice a piece to gain a positional advantage! Svitlana demonstrates how this is working with some very instructional games by Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran Petrosian - the "Master" of positional sacrifices.

5/22/2022 – Another fantastic chess player, who was able to play defensive, aggressive, tactical, strategical, and creative. Boris Spassky has solved some juicy tactics in his games. Also, this is the very first time, that Lawrence and Arne have to face the so-called "nightmare" of the ChessBase tactics section. With limited amount of time, they have to solve this beast. Can you solve it?

5/20/2022 – In the first day of the Champions Chess Tour, Gawain Jones played the Kings Indian against Vidit Gujrathi because it is a very legit weapon. One of Svitlana's favourite openings deserves a second part, to get into some deeper strategic territory. What if White is castling on the queen side? We adjust our plans, and build up some important decisions. Svitlana analyses an interesting King's Indian game between Ivan Cheparinov, and Wang Yue!

5/13/2022 – The sixth World Chess Champion was certainly not known for his cunning tactical manoeuvres. He actually confessed that he was relatively weak with tactics. Nonetheless, he was one of the best chess players in the world, and had to face a fair amount of tactical challenges over the board, which he solved brilliantly. Lawrence shows us more!

5/12/2022 – The King's Indian is a very straight-forward, aggressive opening. Basically, Black builds up a system in the first couple of moves, and once it is set up, the attacking begins! White tries to counter on the queenside, in most cases. But please take a look at it all for yourself in this episode of "Svitlana's Smart Moves".

5/6/2022 – Lawrence thought about showing us some tactics of one of the greatest chess players in the world. The world champion from the US was excellent with everything that chess has to offer. Obviously, Bobby Fischer played some tremendous tactical combinations during his career. We start with a game from 1961 against Mikhail Tal!

5/4/2022 – Perhaps we have already heard the statement that all rook endgames are drawn. But even if this is the case, how to draw? And if it isn't the case, how to defend correctly, or transfer the position to a win? Svitlana explains the principles of rook endgames, with some examples by Alekhine, Capablanca, Firouzja, and Mamedyarov.