Catalan Opening

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Positional mastery. The fianchetto bishop controls everything.

A strategic opening where White combines the Queen's Gambit structure (d4 + c4) with a fianchettoed bishop on g2. The Catalan bishop provides relentless pressure down the long diagonal, making this one of the most powerful weapons for positional players.

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◆Fianchetto the bishop to g2 for long-diagonal pressure
◆In the Open Catalan, sacrifice a pawn for piece activity
◆Recover the c4 pawn with Qc2 and a4
◆In the Closed Catalan, prepare the e4 break with Nbd2
◆Patient positional play — the Catalan bishop does the work
◆Queenside pressure is White's main trump

“Let us master this.”

Played by

Vladimir Kramnik,Magnus Carlsen,Viswanathan Anand,Ding Liren

Catalan Opening

Fundamentals

Catalan Basics

Tactics & Patterns

Open Catalan

Closed Catalan

Recovering the Pawn

Catalan with e4 Break

Anti-Catalan Lines

Catalan Middlegame

Catalan Endgame Technique

Famous Games

Kramnik's Catalan Weapon

The 136-Move Marathon