How to start the Catalan Opening

Hello everyone, Arjun here.

I've been wondering about how I should be starting the Catalan opening in a game. 

There are many ways to get to the Catalonian main-line positions, however, there are many things that black can play such as 2.e5 (against 1.d4) and 1.d4 d5 and if 2.Nf3 then Bg4 to stop you from playing the Catalan.

There is also the traditional approach of transposing from a QGD via g3, however, we can't play the Catalan if they respond to the QG with something like the Albin Counter-Gambit or just the simple QGA.

The point of the post is to ask  the most suitable opening moves to ensure that I get a Catalan on the board the most amount of times, no matter what they respond.

i request everyone to give me their input.

Thanks in advance.

You can't force the Catalan, black has to play into it.

An opening is decided by 2 players. If I play e4 and I want to play the Ruy Lopez, opponent can play Sicilian, French, Caro Kann, Pirc, etc.

The typical move order to enter the Catalan is 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5. This specifically is the Catalan. Alternatively, 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Nf6 transposes into the same position.

• If you want to play a Catalan and black plays 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 then it's not a Catalan. You can play 3. g3 and play either a Fianchetto King's Indian or Neo-Grünfeld depending on what opponent wants to do. 
• Black could also play a Benoni via 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 or 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5. This is now transposing into a Fianchetto Benoni.
• Or a Pseudo-Bogo-Indian via 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+.

That being said, Fianchetto setups against King's Indian, Benoni and Grünfeld are totally playable so you can still insist on the Fianchetto but not the Catalan proper.

• If 1. d4 d5 2. c4 then black can play dxc4, the Queen's Gambit Accepted. Against the QGA, you can play 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3. It's kind of like an Open Catalan but black hasn't played e6 yet so has other options.
• Black could also play the Slav against which the Catalan isn't really optimal. The c6 pawn blunts the bishop and black can play Bf5 without problems which is usually black's problem piece in the Slav.
  You can still play like this though. It's just about equal.

I was playing this why for a while, nf3, g3, bg2, d4, c4. Pushing d4 earlier if they are threatening e5. Downside to this is it allows bg4 and bf5 which would take you out of pure Catalan. Also you’d be playing a fiachetto against kings Indian and grunfeld. Also you’d need a response too …c5 which is why I stopped playing cause you have to pretty much choose a Sicilian, sysmetrical English or maybe end up in a reverse grunfeld. If they set up in a reversed London type set up playing this way can really become stale. 

Y

Oops,

Thanks very much guys. I'll learn other d4 openings then. 😁

It's good to pair with Queen's Gambit and aim for this kind of setup.