Renier Castellanos

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Wake up thursday

In the next diagram it's blacks turn, white's attack just arrived with the move 19.g6, what's the best move for black? Test your calculation skills and your tactical instincts!

Black To Play

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Today's tactic

A refreshing tactic for a boring morning

Black to play and win
Ljubojevic,L-Miles,A

Thursday, August 13, 2009

The next diagram is very interesting, I suggest you take your time, explore the position deeply and find out how can black seize the initiative and get the advantage. I will get back to this position later in a few days..

BLACK TO MOVE
Galego,Luis (2506)-Baches,Guillermo(2397)
Capablanca In Memorian 2003

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Opening books.. The Kings Indian

Hello everyone it's been a while since my last post, this time there is no chess puzzle but I would like to share my impressions of the new book by Victor Bologan, the title is ''The King's Indian A complete black repertoire''
It came out recently and I'm sure it's already a big seller, books about openings like Kings Indian and Najdorf are always good sellers, no matter how many Najdorfs got crushed by Alexey Shirov's sword or how many Kings Indians hopes were frustrated by Vladimir Kramnik and Van Wely people always want to play these sharp defenses.

In this book, Bologan shares with us a large amount of variations and ideas of this romantic defense that he has been playing for more than 20 years, ideas that according to himself he learned from his teacher Zigurds Lanka.
He proposes a repertoire for black wich is the same as he plays, this is always very pleasant when you can see in the games of the author what he suggests that you play, Bologan provides at least two lines to try against each system by white, and all chapters have a tremendous amount of variations almost covering every move that white has tried in practice, so in general there is a lot of valuable information and analysis in this book.
Negative points, in my humble opinion I feel like there is lack of explanations in words, the book is missing that relationship between reader and author, in some critical lines you are inspired going trough the line in your chessboard when suddenly you get the cold ''unclear'' symbol without any word to it.
The second point is that the book might not suit all Kings Indian players, as some of the lines given in this book may not be of your liking, but Ok this an issue of taste.
There isn't much to add, it's a good opening book in general, just for the tremendous amount of information it's worth getting it, but it's not necessarly the best book ever written in the Kings Indian, amateurs players who need to understand the opening rather than memorize variations will probably find it too difficult to read. In my opinion it would have been even better if he had used the games format, with a main game and explaining the ideas and providing variations, in this book you get the A), B), C), A1) format wich is kind of cold for the reader, it lacks complete games.
Anyway, definitely if you like the Kings Indian this is worth buying, I think most players won't agree 100% with his repertoire but there are some very good chapters, I personally like the chapter dedicated to the Saemisch variation.

A book I enjoyed more reading was ''Play the King's Indian'' by Joe Gallagher(I don't know why I read these books if I only play Kings Indian with 7...Na6 and both authors prefer 7...Nc6 in the classical variation)

It's much more simple and you feel more in contact with the opening's spirit, of course it lacks variations in some important lines but in general it's a pretty good book in my opinion, trough a few model games Gallagher explains the main points of the opening, typical attacks and so on, you are quickly charmed by the beauty of the games shown such as Miles-Sax to mention one. The two books are very different, both authors propose a complete different repertoire! if you get the two books you'll have a wide choice to build your own repertoire.

There is a third book, titled''Understanding the King's Indian''by Mikhail Golubev, another King's Indian specialist, this one is also good, the author gives the lines he plays himself explained trough complete games, the book is not so good for building your repertoire but it's definitely a a good book to understand the opening in general, the author explains the main ideas and also the usual problems that black faces in this opening! and how black can generate counterplay even from difficult positions! You can check Golubev's blog for this book here

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Today's tactics

Let's not lose the habit and keep the tactical eye in form, here are some positions from my own bad experiences, even though I actually escaped from some of them with the help of my opponent. Enjoy!

Hernandez,G (2502)-Castellanos,R (2437)
Magistral Cullera 2004

White to play and win
García,C (2357)-Castellanos,R (2437)
Magistral Cullera 2004

White to play and win
Spraggett,K (2564)-Castellanos,R (2437)
San Sebastian 2004

White to play and win

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Quebec Invitational

I'm taking part in a closed tournament from june 19 to june 27. Players include Bator Sambuev from Russia, Anton Kovaylov, Mark Bluvshtein, Vinay Bhat so it is pretty strong event.

Today's position is from my game against the fide master Rufino Camarena, black has played the opening careless and white has a considerable lead in development, what's the best way to continue?
Castellanos,R (2439)-Camarena,R (2352)
Magistral Cullera (2004)