8/5/2025 – Svitlana Demchenko’s Smart Moves show began in 2021 and has produced over 120 nearly weekly episodes on topics ranging from openings and endgames to tactics and all things chess. Now, she is speaking at the World Schools Summit in Washington, DC—fittingly named the Smart Moves Summit 2025! | Photo: ChessBase India Interview
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The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Facing the Sicilian doesn’t have to be complicated. The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Whether your opponent plays the Najdorf, Taimanov, or Dragon, the Alapin lets you take control of the game as early as move two.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: 2...g6
Biel Chess Festival 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Navara, Wojtaszek et al. Opening videos by Blohberger, Engel and Sokolov. Training columns ‘The fortress’, ‘Opening traps , ‘Fundamental Endgame Knowledge’ and much more
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Svitlana's Smart Moves in Washington!
The Smart Moves Summit in Washington, DC (August 4–5, 2025) is a global education conference uniting chess, cognition, and learning, held alongside the FIDE World Schools Team Championship.
Featuring top influencers, researchers, and educators, the event aims to inspire, connect, and transform the future of education through chess.
Promo video of the summit by FIDE
Svitlana Demchenko playing chess in Europe
Soon, Svitlana will begin studying medicine at the University of Ottawa. Before that, she took the opportunity to travel to Europe and compete in two strong chess tournaments. At the XLIV Open Internacional Villa de Benasque in Spain, she gained rating points and even defeated an FM rated 2357.
The 2100+ rated Open International d'Aix-en-Provence – Trophée Dole 2025 was one of the strongest events she has ever played. After starting with 0 out of 4, she made a strong comeback by winning two consecutive games and finished with hardly any rating loss.
Svitlana Demchenko has now reached an Elo rating of 2156.
After her short European tour, she headed to Washington for the Smart Moves Summit 2025, where she participated not only as a speaker but also played a simul match against a group of brave schoolchildren.
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 is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.
The course includes structured explanations, model games, and interactive training tools to help you confidently master the Alapin and outplay your opponents.
The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Facing the Sicilian doesn’t have to be complicated. The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Whether your opponent plays the Najdorf, Taimanov, or Dragon, the Alapin lets you take control of the game as early as move two.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: 2...g6
In France, Svitlana was interviewed by ChessBase India
Arne KaehlerArne 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.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
€49.90
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Some players didn't lose, and won a ChessBase training course by Svitlana!.jpg)
