The Catalan Endgame

The Catalan opening is an opening sequence which generally begins with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dc4 5.Nf3!. This opening is a mixture of Queens Gambit and Reti opening. This opening wasn't popular among the top players in many years. But gradually this opening theory gets healthy and new ideas are discovered.With its use by Vladimir Kramnik,Catalan has gained sufficient attention.Also Levon Aronian ,Boris Gelfand are the renowned practitioner of this line. There is a tendency for games with the Catalan Opening to produce endgames in which white can gain slight advantage. GM Ulf Andersson was one of the artist who employed this variation and gained great result.