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| Moves | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ECO | E00–E09 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Origin | Barcelona 1929, bySavielly Tartakower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Named after | Catalonia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent | Indian Defence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TheCatalan Opening is achess opening where White plays d4 and c4 andfianchettoes the white bishop on g2. A common opening sequence is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3, although various other openings cantranspose into the Catalan. TheEncyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) lists codes E01–E09 for lines with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2; other lines are part of E00.
In the Catalan, White adopts a combination of theQueen's Gambit andRéti Opening. White combines the space-gaining moves d4 and c4 with g3, preparing to fianchetto the king's bishop. This places pressure mainly on the queenside while hoping to keep the white king safe in the long-term. The c4-pawn can become vulnerable, however, and White might have tosacrifice a pawn.
Black has two main approaches to play against the Catalan: in the Open Catalan Black plays ...dxc4 and can either try to hold on to the pawn with ...b5 or give it back for extra time to free their game. In the Closed Catalan, Black does not capture on c4; their game can be somewhatcramped for a while, but is quitesolid. Additionally, Black has ways to avoid the Catalan.
The Catalan has had proponents at the highest level in chess, withVladimir Kramnik,Viswanathan Anand andMagnus Carlsen all employing the opening in their World Chess Championship title games. A number of other grandmasters have successfully played the Catalan, includingFabiano Caruana,Daniil Dubov,Anish Giri andDing Liren.
The Catalan derives its name fromCatalonia, after tournament organisers at the 1929Barcelona tournament askedSavielly Tartakower to create a new variation in homage to Catalonia's chess history. It had been played a few times before Tartakower's usage in the tournament, however: for instance,Réti–Leonhardt, Berlin 1928 transposed into an Open Catalan. The opening cemented itself in the repertoire of leading players of the 1930s and 1940s, such as world championsJose Raul Capablanca,Alexander Alekhine andMikhail Botvinnik, as well as top grandmasters such asSalo Flohr,Paul Keres andSamuel Reshevsky.[1]
The Catalan came to prominence at the top level when bothGarry Kasparov andViktor Korchnoi played it in their Candidates Semifinal match in London in 1983: five games of the eleven-game match featured the Catalan.
In 2004,Ruben Felgaer won a tournament celebrating the 75th anniversary of Barcelona 1929 and the birth of the Catalan Opening, ahead ofGrandmasters (GMs) Viktor Korchnoi,Mihail Marin, Lluis Comas and Viktor Moskalenko andInternational Master Manel Granados. Each game in the tournament, which was also held in Barcelona, began with the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Nf6.
With its use byVladimir Kramnik, the Catalan gained a good deal of attention by high-level GMs in the 2010s. Kramnik played the opening three times in theWorld Chess Championship 2006. The Catalan was also played four times byViswanathan Anand in theWorld Chess Championship 2010; in both instances, the opponent wasVeselin Topalov, and in each instance, White scored two more points than Black.
Magnus Carlsen began to employ the Catalan as his main opening in the late 2010s, most notably using it in the second game of the2021 World Chess Championship againstIan Nepomniachtchi, and used it extensively at theTata Steel Chess Tournament 2022.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |              | 8 | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
The Open Catalan, Classical Line (ECO code E05) consists of the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Nf3 Be7. White sacrifices the pawn for a lead indevelopment. Without a black pawn on d5, White'skingside bishop hinders Black'squeenside development. The Open Catalan line has been a favorite ofAnatoly Karpov andEfim Geller as Black and ofOleg Romanishin as White. Usually, White will recover the pawn with Qc2 and then a4, Ne5, or Qa4+. In order to hold the pawn, Black will have to seriously weaken the queenside with ...a6 and ...b5.
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