Catalan Opening

What are your thoughts on the Catalan? I've just decided to test it out and would love some input!

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/E00_Catalan_Opening

Haven't played it but it has a reputation for being a little bit dull

But I don't know...people like that sort of thing

I have started playing it. It entails a lot of learning and commitment to improving your positional play. It's a bottomless pit of positional nuances. I play it as a way to (hopefully) get into a certain set of positions and improve my ability to assess them. I'd say it's a better thing to practice in online chess than blitz.

EDIT: Note that you cannot always just choose to the play the Catalan. After 1. d4 you need to be ready for assorted unpleasantries that black might throw at you, which preclude getting into the Catalan

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessopening?eco=E01

White gets strong results from the Catalan, but it can be quite complicated for a d4 opening.  One reason I play d4 is to avoid mountains of theory, so that doesn't appeal to me.  I'm also not crazy about that fianchetto; I don't like the holes on f3 and h3.

a nice thread could be found here:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/the-catalan-opening

I play it regularly, and it can be whatever you wanna call it except "dull". Believe me. It's a very positional and at the same time dynamic opening, full of possibilities.

The catalan doesn't ensure an advantage on the opening (if Black plays solidly and correctly I don't know how many openings do for White), but a good initiative, and if Black plays carelessly he can suddendly find himself in a somehow cramped and unpleasant-to-play position. The fianchettoed bishop on g2 is often a real killer.

But I fully agree with Fezzik: definitely the Catalan is not an opening for beginners, due to its transpositional possibilities and complexity.

Take care.

Just for the record, another work of art on the Catalan, by Mihail Marin: Catalan E00-E09.

Regards.

It has a reputation for being a game preferred by Masters: full of subtleties that can confound the average chess player.

It gives me the willies when I see it coming at me and someone 2000+ is playing it. Otherwise, I expect a positional error.

Yes! Indeed Marin did an excelent research job, and it's obvious he has spent looooong time preparing the DVD. It's really a must-have for Catalan players.

Not only is the Catalan not a opening for beginners when you play 1d4, but it is definitely beyond a beginners scope when you start out with 1.Nf3...2.g3...3.Bg7.  A good overview of the ideas in the Catalan can be found in Beating the Flank Openings, by Vassilios  Kotronias which you can probably buy second-hand pretty cheaply.  Its a good read, even if you have no intention of using any of his recommended lines, and skip the theoretical chapters.

 yes, the position you have there as white is a fairly typical Catalan position. White has an advantage here. White should look to restrict blacks forces movements and use his space advantage from the d pawn. He should look to push e4 soon and maybe look to get the f knight onto d3, a good Catalan square for this knight. At the moment white has 2 knights defending 2 squares  c5 and e5 when one knight on d3 can do this. On move 9Nd2 I would have played Nc3, I dont see the point in moving that knight twice to get to b3.

brilliant comments.

it is a strong opening for white that is mostly overlooked possibly because it is complicated.

See Victor Bologan's book "The Powerful Catalan"

and the positive evaluation of the Catalan in this paper

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262566057_COMPARING_CHESS_OPENINGS_PART_3_QUEEN%27S_PAWN_OPENINGS?ev=prf_pub

If you can see deep enough into the lines, it's amazing. If you can't mentally visualize complex positions, you are just chucking for the exchange. So yeah, I'll touch it if I ever get to be 2100+.

Lots of traps if they try to keep the pawn, a4 is meant to undermine the pawn