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.

9/6/2024 – 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?

7/23/2024 – Pictorial portraits of ten chess players from many different countries, engaged in various sections (GMT Masters Triathlon, GMT Challengers Triathlon, Masters Open, and Amateur Open) at the 57th edition of the Biel Chess Festival. An unparalleled mix of chess activities! Our author, who lives in Biel, presents both known and unknown faces from the Festival | Photos: Organiser (Simon Bohnenblust, Peter A. Steffen)

7/13/2024 – Unbelievable but true! Svitlana Demchenko and Arne Kaehler are celebrating their 100th episode of "Svitlana's Smart Moves". It all started in April 2021, and has now reached a magical number. In the video, Svitlana and Arne take a look at some superlatives of the past episodes: the most and least viewed, the shortest, the longest, the most and least liked, and more. Their looks have changed a little, but the format improved over time, thanks to you, dear viewers! Finally, we play a blitz game on an actual wooden chessboard.

6/25/2024 – The famous Biel International Chess Festival will take place again, from the 12.07. – 26.07.2024. It is still enough time to spontaneously plan to participate, book travel tickets + hotel, and invest a little time to brush up your openings. Whatever you enjoy the most in chess, the Biel festival has you covered: from Blitz, to Rapid, to several Classical events, up to a Simultaneous match against Abhimanyu Mishra, a 960 event, and even more formats for younger players, and Physicians only! | Photo: Pixabay

6/21/2024 – Svitlana was showcasing material imbalances in chess a couple of times already, and features plenty of interesting examples on her first Fritztrainer. But the legendary queen sacrifice which Magnus Carlsen pulled off against David Navara at the Biel Chess Festival 2018, remains one of the most beautiful imbalance games. Rook, knight, and pawn, are an interesting compensation for the queen, and the endgame skills of the Norwegian GM can never be underestimated. Also, we are so close to our 100th episode, and have a little surprise for you in the first week of July!

6/17/2024 – Our beloved WIM from Canada picked up streaming chess games online a couple of months ago, and became a Twitch partner in no time. Thousands of chess friends are watching her, playing blitz and bullet games, or solving puzzles. Svitlana gained nearly 6000 followers, who she even plays against on stream, at times.

6/12/2024 – In this very instructive, and informative game, Svitlana managed to draw against a strong, Canadian IM. But the truth is, she almost had to forfeit the game! The reason for Svitlana arriving far too late to the game, and what you can learn from the opening, middle game with hanging pawns, and endgame technique, you will see in the video.

5/22/2024 – In this Episode, Svitlana presents to us the fundamentals of openings, with an example played by Paul Keres. With a cunning sacrifice, White gains some advantage. Or not? How to actually evaluate a position best? The Canadian WIM tells us about the six rules of evaluation!

5/11/2024 – Svitlana and Arne will participate in the Biel International Chess Festival this year! Last year, the masters section had some stunning tactics on the board, and Svitlana picked some of her favourites for your delight. Le Quang Liem, who won the last two events consecutively, has played the majority of interesting tactics! But this year, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa, Javokhir Sindarov, Haik Martirosyan, and Abhimanyu Mishra will join the Triathlon masters, to give you even more interesting games to watch.

5/3/2024 – Now, all of us chess players know that the World Championship is battled out by Gukesh and Ding Liren. Both players faced each other in classical chess only twice before, in Wijk aan Zee 2023, and 2024. One of their games was fairly interesting, and Svitlana is analysing it.

4/12/2024 – Arne recently played in a chess tournament, and one of his opponents played the unusual 1.f4, which was quite a surprise. Sadly, he didn't film this Smart Moves episode before the tournament, to get to know the surprising answer Nh6!? The so called - Horsefly Defence in the Bird Opening. Even the engines think that this counter is absolutely legit, and the Mega Database shows excellent results as well. Svitlana shows, why it is a powerful move!

4/3/2024 – Together with Arne Kähler, Canadian WIM Svitlana Demchenko (photo) regularly entertains and trains readers of our website on the Svitlana’s Smart Moves show. The 20-year-old from Ukraine also made smart moves at the Canadian Women’s Zonal tournament in Toronto, which ended at the beginning of April. She started as number 5 in the seeding list and ended up in a tie for first place with 7½/9 points. She finished second on tiebreaks behind rating favourite Maili-Jade Ouellet. | Photo: ChessCanada Facebook page

4/2/2024 – Svitlana dug deep to find some outstanding, beautiful tactics, by all the men's and women's candidates, who will compete in Toronto soon. Arne is trying hard to solve all the puzzles, and get 8 out of 8 in both videos. Will he succeed? And how will you do, dear viewer? These two videos are the perfect start to get into the mood for the candidates tournament!

3/14/2024 – This episode was lost in the depths of 2023, but luckily returned! The Gruenfeld is a very hyper-modern opening, which gives White the centre, while Black has to fight around the flanks. If Black knows the opening well, White has a difficult time gaining some advantage. But with an example game from Vincent Keymer, the move "h4" is a beautiful way to attack the Black pieces. Svitlana shows us how to master this idea.

3/10/2024 – The Carlsbad Pawn structure, or formation, is normally deriving from the Queen's Gambit declined, London System, or the Caro-Kann. A common structure, which actually has some ideas, and plans to accomplish. Svitlana tells us, what the major plans are for White, and Black, by showing us two example games. One of them is Garry Kasparov vs. Nigel Short!

2/24/2024 – The Methodical Attacking Principles within certain pawn structures hold high importance. From the opening to the middlegame, the patterns, plans, and theories derived from our initial pawn moves necessitate different actions. Those who frequently play the Queen's Gambit likely have a better understanding of an isolated pawn compared to aficionados of the Ruy Lopez. Svitlana discusses an excellent game by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, highlighting how he gradually leverages his pawn structure advantage for an unstoppable attack.

2/2/2024 – With the stunning result of 5 out of 5 on board 1, Svitlana participated in the Canadian University Championship! One of her games included the Portuguese Variation in the Scandinavian Opening, which is "Svitlana's Smart Moves" most viewed episodes! She won against an FM, and her opponent was almost without a chance. Maybe, this opening is much better, than everybody thought?

1/26/2024 – This episode is a must-watch for every endgame beginner, and soon to be expert. Svitlana is presenting some essential endgame positions and how to deal with them. May it be rook vs. bishop, queen vs. rook, and other positions, which every chess player had on the board already, at least once in their life. Our advice: Use Fritz 19, and replay the positions from the replayer to actively learn the patterns you saw in this video.