Svitlana's Smart Moves - How to analyse a game you lost

by Arne Kaehler
2/25/2025 – Svitlana Demchenko is sharing a game from the Canadian University Chess Championships, where she faced International Master Nicholas Vettese from the University of Toronto. Despite a strong start and some exciting tactical moments, the game ended in a loss. Svitlana walks through key moments, including her opening choices, the decision to play aggressively or defensively, and the importance of managing time and evaluating critical moments. Reflecting on the game, she highlights areas for improvement and emphasizes the valuable lessons learned from this loss.

The Leningrad Dutch Defence - A repertoire against 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 The Leningrad Dutch Defence - A repertoire against 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3

The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.

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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 111

With Svitlana Demchenko and Arne Kaehler

Svitlana Demchenko is a 20-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 everything 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.

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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". Her newest Entry is the "Leningrad Dutch Defence"!

Some Pictures of the Canadian University Chess Championships 2025

Svitlana top female prize (1)

Svitlana vs Nicholas

UOttawa team picture

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.

The Leningrad Dutch Defence - A repertoire against 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3

The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.

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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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See also

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Instructive Tata Tactics!

1/25/2025 – The prestigeous Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee is on again, and just in the first couple of days we have been blessed with some instructive tactics! Svitlana has some nice examples prepared for us, either for your watching entertainment, or to actively try to solve them!
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - How to play the Benko Gambit!

1/8/2025 – One of our viewers’ favourite themes in Svitlana’s Smart Moves is the openings. This is probably due to the way Svitlana can splendidly explain the ideas, patterns, basics, and key points to consider in an opening. In this episode, the Canadian WIM tackles the Benko Gambit, an opening that Magnus Carlsen enjoyed for several years.
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Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.

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