In this particular 3. g3 move order, what's wrong with 3. ... c5?
If White pushes on to d5, Black should get a very favorable Benoni, since g3 is a pretty odd move to play against the Benoni.
In this particular 3. g3 move order, what's wrong with 3. ... c5?
If White pushes on to d5, Black should get a very favorable Benoni, since g3 is a pretty odd move to play against the Benoni.
That looks like a good approach, maybe I will try it. I am just not familiar with these benko style structures. The only opening I play like this is some in the nimzo as black if white pushes d5, but I tend to struggle a little in those positions. Of course, there are some differences, so I might give it a shot if I continue to struggle in the mainline.
White's 5Nbxd2 is actually inaccurate, black play d6, and e5 putting pawns on black squares, after exchanging black square bishop with an easy game. https://www.chessgames.com/
With the defence you intended with d5xc4 and c5, which is perfectly good and recommended in "Keep in simple with black", I don't think white's move order g3 or Nf3 first matters.
It doesn't matter in the defense you choose with Bb4ch and BxBch either. After 5QxB d5 is a very tough defence which was trendy at high level a few years back. Carlsen played a few games with it for example. Can find youtube videos explaining it.
In general I don't think the Catalan is a opening to be feared at club level if black plays a straightforward line. White is aiming to use very sophisticated positional ideas, which white club players don't have ability to exploit.
I like the Closed Catalan with Bb4+ then Be7, it's a little drawish but in general Black is scoring well and there are ways for White to go wrong. Since it looks like you're intending to play a Nimzo here, I'll note that a theoretical treatment for this line can be found in Barrish and Sielecki's Nimzo-Ragozin LTR on Chessable.
