6/14/2025 – In this episode, Svitlana gives an in-depth introduction to the Evans Gambit, a sharp and aggressive opening in the Italian Game that sacrifices a pawn to gain rapid development and attacking chances. She explains the main ideas for both sides, key traps, and various defensive setups for Black, emphasizing how crucial preparation and understanding of typical tactical patterns are. The lesson concludes with historical context, including a look at the famous "Evergreen Game" by Anderssen, and encourages viewers to explore this opening for its practical surprise value and rich attacking potential.

6/6/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, WGM Svitlana Demchenko dives into some of the most exciting tactical moments from Norway Chess 2025. She challenges viewers to sharpen their calculation skills by solving real-game puzzles featuring top grandmasters. Get ready to put your tactics to the test!

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.

5/23/2025 – In this Svitlana Demchenko and Arne Kaehler reflect on the Biel Chess Festival, which they describe as one of the most joyful and diverse chess events in Europe. They highlight a legendary 2009 game between Alexander Morozevich and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), showcasing chaotic Sicilian Najdorf tactics, razor-sharp sacrifices, and an astonishing defensive resource by MVL — a rook that remained untaken for 24 moves! The game is celebrated as one of the wildest and most creative ever played, pushing the boundaries of classical chess patterns.

5/14/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana’s Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko introduces the Hedgehog pawn structure, a strategic setup common in the Sicilian Defense, featuring black pawns on a6, b6, d6, and e6. She emphasizes the educational value of understanding pawn structures for overall middle-game improvement, using a Kasparov–Kramnik game as a case study. Svitlana explains typical plans for both sides: white often uses space advantage and looks for a queenside breakthrough with moves like b4 and c5, while black prepares central or queenside pawn breaks like d5 or b5, and, much to Arne's delight, may even launch a kingside attack with …g5. But it might be better to stick to the queenside pawn advancing!

5/4/2025 – The 2025 Canadian Chess Championships took place in Toronto on 17-22 April, bringing together 90 players from across nine provinces. IM Nikolay Noritsyn (pictured) claimed his third national title in the open section, while WIM Li Yunshan secured her first women’s title on tiebreak. The championships featured strong performances from both established and emerging players in two parallel 9-round Swiss tournaments. Close contests in both events led to final-round deciders. | Photo: John Upper

4/18/2025 – There was a lot of news at ChessBase in March: whether it was a mobile app, video course, ChessBase Magazine Extra, or databases – there was sure to be something to suit every chess taste. Take a look at last month's products:

4/11/2025 – Svitlana presents to us an insightful analysis of the first two decisive games in the Women's World Chess Championship match between Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi, focusing particularly on their endgames. Both games, though seemingly equal in rook endgames, were decided by subtle inaccuracies and the strategic importance of king activity and piece placement. Svitlana emphasizes how small endgame advantages—such as a more active king or minor positional tweaks—can determine the outcome even in positions that look like simple draws.

3/18/2025 – Svitlana Demchenko introduces her new ChessBase training course, focusing on one of her favourite openings, the King's Indian Attack (KIA). She explains its universal nature, emphasizing that players only need to learn a basic setup (1.Nf3, 2.g3, 3.Bg2, 4.O-O, 5.d3), making it ideal for both creative and lazy players. She showcases how the KIA can be reached via e4 against various defences, including the French, Sicilian and Caro-Kann, offering flexibility in transpositions. A model game by Tigran Petrosian is analysed, demonstrating the strategic manoeuvring and attacking potential of the opening, particularly the h4-h5 push to weaken Black's kingside.

3/13/2025 – The King's Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities. By simply knowing the setup and some key ideas, it can become a lifelong addition to your repertoire - without the need for constant memorization. Played by fierce attackers like Bobby Fischer and great positional players like Tigran Petrosian, this opening is suitable for players of all styles.

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.

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!

1/9/2025 – At the start of the World Championship in Singapore, on November 25th 2024, a new chess puzzle game, inspired by the incredibly popular 'Wordle', was launched. It was developed by a young lad from Singapore, a problem expert, together with a member of the ChessBase family. We have been experimenting with the World Championship game, to see how people who are confronted with it, react. We recorded a strong chess player's first interaction with the game. It was instructive and entertaining.

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.

1/5/2025 – Svitlana's Smart Moves first episode of 2025 is all about juicy tactics, and tragical blunders of the Rapid & Blitz World Chess Championship. Some chess tactics were especially significant. A couple of games by top players like Carlsen, Nepo, and Pragg were already won, and one more correct move would have sealed the deal. Instead, some blunders occurred, mostly in time trouble of course, and the tables turned.

12/29/2024 – The World Championship match between Gukesh Dommaraju and Ding Liren demonstrated how important it can be to catch your opponent on the wrong foot in the opening. In her 60-minute course, Svitlana Demchenko shows how this can be achieved with both colours and very little theory. | Photos: Nils Rohde

12/23/2024 – In this episode, Svitlana shows us a game between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. Interesting games either have a spectacular opening, some sweet tactics, or a fabulous endgame. In this game, it is the middlegame, in which Magnus sacrifices a piece, to gain a never-ending control of the whole game. Even the engines were impressed!

12/10/2024 – After Ding Liren won against Gukesh in game 12 of the World Championship, chess players are talking about the Chinese comeback mentality. But the Indian GM also has some comeback abilities. Svitlana is showing us two examples by the two extraordinary players from a couple of years ago.

12/8/2024 – Svitlana invites us to discover invisible moves! Those moves are extraordinary, and hidden from our chess-pattern-trained eyes. Nonetheless, it is important to always lookout for a creative way to win a piece, save your queen, or even dodge a checkmate. Creativity is a strong factor to finding invisible moves.

11/23/2024 – The World Chess Championship 2024 is finally upon us. Svitlana had an in-depth look at the last game, that Gukesh had against Ding Liren in 2024. Then, it was the World Champion who had the upper end. Although the Indian super star is the clear favourite to become the new World Champion, Svitlana and Arne hope for interesting games, and a tough fight!

11/15/2024 – We have been waiting for a while, but she is finally back! WIM Svitlana Demchenko had to work and study, but returns with a fun, attacking lesson! Well-known chess author, Joe Gallagher, wrote the book "101 Attacking Ideas In Chess". Svitlana took some examples of this book, and it covers plenty of rules for the attacking player.

9/17/2024 – Heading into the rest day of the Women's Chess Olympiad, India emerged as the sole leaders after a 2.5-1.5 victory over Armenia in round 6. Divya Deshmukh (pictured) secured the win in the only decisive game of the match, helping India maintain their perfect score. Close behind, Georgia and Poland are tied for second place, just one match point behind India. Both teams won their respective matches by the narrowest of margins, with Salome Melia leading Georgia to victory and Oliwia Kiolbasa delivering the key win for Poland. | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

9/6/2024 – Vladimir Tukmakov faced Viktor Korchnoi in the USSR Championship, 1970, and played a famously brilliant game, in the Nimzo-Indian, Bronstein variation. While the Black King tries to escape a devastating attack, Korchnoi still finds the time for counterattacks, and builds up some intense threats. Tukmakov decides to invest his attack in a new idea! Svitlana's analysis of the whole game, is in great detail, as always. The Smart Moves continue in October, after the Olympiad in Budapest.

8/9/2024 – Episode 101 has launched, and Svitlana is testing our tactical skills! She found some lovely games of the World Rapid & Blitz Team Championship Tactics 2024, including Magnus Carlsen, Richard Rapport, Ding Liren, and more. Some tactics can be solved rather easily, while others require some critical thinking. Daniil Dubov, for example, couldn't find a decisive tactic. But maybe you can?