The catalan opening

The catalan opening

Article moved to my blog:
http://blog.chess.com/Pau/the-catalan-opening

Right!

Don't be too modest about your openening, ye Catalans!

As far as I know, equalising isn't all that easy for Black, and as you have mentioned, the Catalan Opening has featured in several recent World Championship matches. Even if Black managed to equalize in quite a few games, there were very convincing white wins both by Kramnik and Anand, which lead to a push in popularity for this interesting opening.

I think your book list should definitely include:

• Angus Dunnington: Winning with the Catalan Quite dated by now (1997), but a good instructional book explaining the key plans.
• John Donaldson & Carsten Hansen: A strategic Opening Repertoire also includes recommendations on the Catalan, which they arrive at by a 1.Nf3 move order.
• Boris Avrukh: 1.d4 Vol.1 An outstanding work advising a strong 1.d4 grandmaster repertoire including the Catalan.

Enjoy your opening!

Visca!

I love the Catalan Opening. It is my main opening for White. Another really good book on this opening is caled Wojo's Weapons: Winning with White. It shows many of the important ideas of the open and closed Catalan as well as various defenses that black uses such as the Tarrach and the Slav.

i play the catalon  a lot. i have book by nigel davies but i don't like it vary much.

i usually open with nf3, d4, g3, bg3, o-o, c4 this prevents a early dxc4 which causes a lot of trouble.

very nice thread, thanks for lot of useful links.

Thank you all for sharing these interesting comments and provide good resources!