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
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
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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.
2026 Chess Olympiad with analyses by Abdusattorov, Donchenko, Duda, So and many more – ‘Rooks love open files’: Tactics training with Oliver Reeh – ‘Don’t underestimate it’: Caruana’s blitz weapon 1.e4 e5 2.d3 – Total Video playing time: over 6 hours!
Most players don’t lack the urge to attack, they just strike at the wrong moment, and GM Sipke Ernst shows you which signals tell you to go for the king and which tell you to choose another plan.
How grandmasters win without fireworks: GM Jan Markos shows you 11 very practical tips from "How to play in a lost position" to "Be patient like Carlsen" that will improve your tournament chess.
The Nimzo-Indian has stood the test of time for over a century: Still a top choice for elite players today, from Magnus Carlsen to Praggnanandhaa, it remains one of Black's most reliable ways to fight for real chances against 1.d4 2.c4 3.Nc3.
Italian Game Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains 8571 top class games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 479 are annotated.
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4!? is an opening idea well worth considering. Black immediately threatens to double the pawns on c3 in the style of the Trompowski or Sicilian Grand Prix attack.
€9.90
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Some players didn't lose, and won a ChessBase training course by Svitlana!.jpg)
