Svitlana's Smart Moves - Alekhine's Defense

by Arne Kaehler
9/15/2022 – World Champion Alexander Alekhine successfully played an unusual opening in the 1920s, one that would later be named after him. For White, the opening is annoying because, although it looks unplayable for Black at first, it is very much playable for his opponent. Furthermore, although it is called "Alekhine's Defence" it is seemingly more suitable for attacking players, which we will learn from today's video. Svitlana enjoys this opening big time, and shares her knowledge with us.

The Scotch Game The Scotch Game

Besides in-depth theory and exciting tactical exercises in the Scotch Game, this video course also includes a bonus section on the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Bc4), a lively variation often leading to very dynamic positions.

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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 48

With Svitlana Demchenko and Arne Kaehler

Svitlana Demchenko is an 18-year-old, Canadian WIM and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the Women's International Master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.

Replay the moves on this board, and save the crucial positions to your repertoire:

 

If you like Svitlana's Smart moves, you will certainly enjoy her video lectures about "Surprising your opponents with the Lazy Sicilian", her first Fritztrainer "Understanding Material Imbalances", and her brand new Fritztrainer "The Scotch Game".

Surprising Your Opponents with the Lazy Sicilian

In just 60 minutes, you will be well-equipped with a surprise weapon, which will take most of your opponents out of book right from the start.

Understanding Material Imbalances

This DVD focuses on several types of material imbalances, such as Rook vs 2 Pieces, Queen vs 2 Rooks, and Queen vs Pieces.

The Scotch Game

Besides in-depth theory and exciting tactical exercises in the Scotch Game, this video course also includes a bonus section on the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Bc4), a lively variation often leading to very dynamic positions.

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Topics: coach, Svitlana Demchenko, Svitlana's Smart Moves
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - The two knights tango opening

9/26/2022 – Today, Svitlana takes her "smart moves" very literal, and presents to us an opening, which you might not have heard of yet. The two knights tango is not a Gambit, but a quite solid offbeat opening, focusing on the power of very early knight development, and asking the opponent to push the pawns forward too hasty. If the opponent commits to pawn moves, the tango knights can dance around the board, and cause some havoc. A fine opening for Black. Other names for this opening are: Black Knights' Tango, Mexican Defence or Kevitz–Trajkovic Defence
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Converting an attack correctly

8/31/2022 – Starting an attack against the opponent is often more fun, than defending. But converting an attack to a winning position, or a checkmate, is not always an easy task. It can fade away quickly, and we are left with less pieces, and a lost position. Good for us, Svitlana knows quite well how to convert an attack to a win, and gives us plenty of good hints, on how to proceed.
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Video

60m Botvinnik System

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).