Dealing with this rare move order

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my137thaccount

I play the Catalan Opening and I'm currently moving from 1.d4 to 1.Nf3 to reach it in order to avoid the Modern Benoni. An additional benefit of 1.Nf3 seems to be avoiding the Grunfeld Defense through the following move order:

However, the issue is what happens after black plays 4...c5? This is now a Symmetrical English, but it looks like white must either transpose to the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian with 5.d4 or play a Botvinnik setup, which is supposed to be fairly harmless against the Symmetrical English. I would have no trouble transposing to the Accelerated Dragon, except that this move order is hardly ever played whereas the Accelerated Dragon is a fairly theoretical opening. Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do here?

IMKeto

No idea what to tell you since i have no clue as to your ability.

lexpk

I play this occasionally as well (in fact I had the very position after 4. ...c5 in an OTB game 2 months ago) and I always transpose to the accelerated dragon, which probably gives the best chances. In particular I like systems with Nc2 against this moveorder because white doesn't have to worry about Bxc3 shenanigans at any point. By the way, 4. ...e5 is also a move and I haven't found any advantage for white there, although fortunately very few people seem to know about it and I have yet to face it myself.

MynameisMurl
IMBacon wrote:

No idea what to tell you since i have no clue as to your ability.

How does ones ability affect good moves? 

 

Also, we can tell from the questions this player is no beginner, perhaps even above intermediate? Who knows

 

i am now following this interesting thread. 

IMKeto

"How does ones ability affect good moves? "

This was all in needed to read...

ThrillerFan

As one that often plays this as White, you cannot force the Catalan.  As you displayed, you avoid the Grunfeld (if 3...d5, there is an Anti-Grunfeld line with an early queen trade on d1), but any early c5 leads into English Territory, and the specific lone you gave can often transpose directly to the Maroczy Bind.

 

There is a good book out by Lakdawala called "How Ulf Beats Black".  It is based on 1.Nf3 with the following lines:

Exchange King's Indian

Anti-Grunfeld

Catalan (when black plays an early d5 and e6)

English Opening (Against 1...c5)

Exchange Slav (Against 1...d5 and 2...c6, you play 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.d4)

And then a few minor lines like the Dutch, Modern Defense, etc.

 

New In Chess published it either late 2017 or first half of 2018, so it is recent analysis.