I think the QGD is a trickier opening, it's easier for black to go wrong positionally there. I'm speaking from my 90s experience.
Why do strong players (masters) prefer Queens gambit to catalan?
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Apr 10, 2022
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#3
I too am curious. I play the QGD often, so would like the perspective of GMs. Thanks 2Bf41-0
Apr 11, 2022
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#4
Didn’t carlsen play the Catalan against nepo? I get the feeling that the Catalan is coming into the vogue as of recent developments. I guess you mean why the QG is played more often. Maybe because it’s just better known?
Apr 12, 2022
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#5
Qg is just a God level opening like the ruy lopez but Catalan is the second best opening if u are d4 player and it is also often played at gm level especially nowadays and it's very solid and white had lot of positional advantage and positional pressure and one wrong move in both of the openings will just blow you out of the board
But both openings are great and as far using qg more than the catalan is concerned because______( I have many answers but I wouldn't answer it on form as it would be little controversial)
Anyway I play both e4 and d4 and Catalan and queens gambit are the openings which I alway play when I play d4 and yes I prefer too the queens gambit because one small reason I can give you that Catalan is a system which can be played against anything but it is better to play it against some variation of queen gambit like against the nimzo against the english, against the qgd and kid if you want and queens gambit has way more variety and flexibility compared to the catalan
DoubleDecker1104 wrote:
My impression was that the catalan was a wee bit stronger than the queens gambit.
Different beasts. Quite alike all sound openings, both are about equal with best play from both sides. The Catalan is a tad more technical, which may mean a tiny bit of something for a Grandmaster, and nothing at all for a class player. Rather the opposite: a class player can understand the orthodox Queen's gambit lines much better than the technical subtleties of the Catalan.
A small tip: If you cannot decide in favour of one, of them, 1.e4 is a great solution... 
Apr 12, 2022
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#7
2Bf41-0 wrote:
I'm speaking from my 90s experience.
You weren't alive in the 90s. But good try.
Apr 12, 2022
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#8
Catalan has a defensive feel to it, aside from the skill based issues of stopping black cracking it open on the queenside. That's subjective, but if other people feel like I do... that it's like playing as black, I think it could have a lot to do with why it's not so fashionable.
Apr 12, 2022
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#9
I know a lot of strong players who like d4 openings (like Catalan and Queen's gambit) because of low risk and perhaps less theory intensive. Strong master players have to play into mainline sicilian, which is painfully theoretical.
Apr 12, 2022
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#10
I play queens gambit and Catalan
And I had to remember a full course on queens gambit and Catalan and I also play sicilian najdorf and 1 e4 I rembered all the lines in this two openings also I think the e4 and sicilian together is 200 lines
And theory of reverse sicilian 30 lines what to do against every variation
At least my brain had succesfully rembered 350 lines of important theory at least to give me good position each and every time after 15 moves of opening prep
Queen's Gambit is more sound.
Carlsen almost lost his WC match game with white
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2122755
tygxc wrote:
Queen's Gambit is more sound.
Carlsen almost lost his WC match game with white
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2122755
WC Vishy Anand kibitzed at chess24 that the position was extremely complicated and he had no idea what's going on, but nevertheless Couch Grand Master @tygxc has a clear verdict...
I rest my case.
I_PLAY_LIKE_CARUANA2 wrote:
I play queens gambit and Catalan
And I had to remember a full course on queens gambit and Catalan and I also play sicilian najdorf and 1 e4 I rembered all the lines in this two openings also I think the e4 and sicilian together is 200 lines
And theory of reverse sicilian 30 lines what to do against every variation
At least my brain had succesfully rembered 350 lines of important theory at least to give me good position each and every time after 15 moves of opening prep
This is the stupidest thing I've seen all day. 
Thanks for a good laugh! 
honestly no clue but its just one of the most basic and grinding openings to be known
Apr 13, 2022
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#15
ShrekChess69420 wrote:
I_PLAY_LIKE_CARUANA2 wrote:
I play queens gambit and Catalan
And I had to remember a full course on queens gambit and Catalan and I also play sicilian najdorf and 1 e4 I rembered all the lines in this two openings also I think the e4 and sicilian together is 200 lines
And theory of reverse sicilian 30 lines what to do against every variation
At least my brain had succesfully rembered 350 lines of important theory at least to give me good position each and every time after 15 moves of opening prep
This is the stupidest thing I've seen all day. Thanks for a good laugh!
And u are the stupidest person I ever saw in the forum, thnx for good laugh too
Both are quite solid options that are played frequently at the GM level. My impression is that the Queen's Gambit is probably analyzed more thoroughly than the Catalan, which in my experience is more about the ideas of the position (same can be said for Queen's Gambit, but there are many different ways of playing for Black so White will also need to know a bit more).
Hey all,
Just like the title says; I'm curious why master level players would prefer the queen's gambit to the catalan. My impression was that the catalan was a wee bit stronger than the queens gambit.