5/30/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, Svitlana and Arne analyse a historic World Championship game from the 1985 match between Karpov and Kasparov. The focus is on Kasparov's bold pawn sacrifice, 9...d5, in the Sicilian, which showcases deep home preparation and leads to him getting a powerful "octopus knight" on d3. The analysis reveals how Kasparov's strategic mastery and piece coordination slowly restricted Karpov's position until it collapsed under pressure. The episode highlights how classical games still offer valuable lessons, especially in regard to positional dominance and long-term planning.
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 116
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 courses "The Scotch Game", and the "Leningrad Dutch Defence". Her newest Entry is the "King's Indian Attack"!
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.
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.
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