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ChessPub Forum › Chess Publishing Openings › 1. d4 d5 2. c4 › Catalan › Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan

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Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan (Read 5482 times)

Ama17 YaBB Newbies Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 6 Joined: 07/23/15	Re: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan Reply #5 - 07/26/15 at 07:02:19	Post Tools	Print Post
	huibui wrote on 07/25/15 at 07:24:17: Ama17 wrote on 07/25/15 at 05:24:57: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O Nf6 6. c4 goes into a Tarrasch-type Catalan that White scores well with. That's true, but Black has the independent try of taking on d4 with the knight still on b8. This way he avoids a reversed Grünfeld and gets quite a good game imo. Critical seems to be 4...cxd4, when after 5.Nxd4 e5 Black is very comfortable. Probably better is 5.0-0, but even then I think Black is fine after for instance 5...e6 (with the idea of meeting 6.Nxd4 with 6...e5) or 5...h6 (again waiting for white to take d4 and then play ...e5 in one go). It seems to me that Black is fully equal following this approach. Another critical try is 3...Bf5 of course, trying to get a closed Catalan with the bishop outside of the pawn chain. And there are lines with a quick ...b5, for instance 3.g3 e5 4.Bg2 b5, which are considered to be quite good. All in all I think your move order allows at least as many critical tries from Black as the main line 3.c4 e6 4.g3... Great points! I'll put some work into exploring them. Thank you so much for your responses.

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huibui Junior Member Offline Posts: 86 Location: Berlin Joined: 12/14/08 Gender:	Re: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan Reply #4 - 07/25/15 at 07:24:17	Post Tools	Print Post
	Ama17 wrote on 07/25/15 at 05:24:57: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O Nf6 6. c4 goes into a Tarrasch-type Catalan that White scores well with. That's true, but Black has the independent try of taking on d4 with the knight still on b8. This way he avoids a reversed Grünfeld and gets quite a good game imo. Critical seems to be 4...cxd4, when after 5.Nxd4 e5 Black is very comfortable. Probably better is 5.0-0, but even then I think Black is fine after for instance 5...e6 (with the idea of meeting 6.Nxd4 with 6...e5) or 5...h6 (again waiting for white to take d4 and then play ...e5 in one go). It seems to me that Black is fully equal following this approach. Another critical try is 3...Bf5 of course, trying to get a closed Catalan with the bishop outside of the pawn chain. And there are lines with a quick ...b5, for instance 3.g3 e5 4.Bg2 b5, which are considered to be quite good. All in all I think your move order allows at least as many critical tries from Black as the main line 3.c4 e6 4.g3...
	« Last Edit: 07/25/15 at 09:30:38 by huibui »
	You tell the young people of today that...
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Ama17 YaBB Newbies Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 6 Joined: 07/23/15	Re: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan Reply #3 - 07/25/15 at 05:24:57	Post Tools	Print Post
	1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O Nf6 6. c4 goes into a Tarrasch-type Catalan that White scores well with. I suppose a downside is that Black could play symmetrically. But for those who wish to avoid the mainlines of the Gruenfeld, this approach may help. Here's an example: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. Nbd2 c6 (6... c5 7. dxc5 Na6 8. Nb3 Ne4 9. Ne1 Bf5 10. Nd3 Rc8 [scores well for White]) 7. c4 Bf5 8. b3 Ne4 9. Bb2 Nd7 10. Nh4 I suppose I'm trying to find a way to get Catalan or Catalan like positions and avoid some defenses, without the 1. Nf3 approach, which is too transpositional. Moreover, I'm comfortable with the QPO's, so if I need to fall back on the Torre, for instance, I've played d4.

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huibui Junior Member Offline Posts: 86 Location: Berlin Joined: 12/14/08 Gender:	Re: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan Reply #2 - 07/23/15 at 09:35:44	Post Tools	Print Post
	Imo 3...c5 is a strong argument against this particular move order. Do you have any ideas how to deal with that?

	You tell the young people of today that...
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Ama17 YaBB Newbies Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 6 Joined: 07/23/15	Re: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan Reply #1 - 07/23/15 at 03:18:31	Post Tools	Print Post
	Here's one variation I'm interested in: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 Nc6 8. Nbd2

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Ama17 YaBB Newbies Offline I Love ChessPublishing! Posts: 6 Joined: 07/23/15	Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan 07/23/15 at 03:11:02	Post Tools	Print Post
	1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 Are there many resources on this line? If so, would you share? I like delaying c4, as I'm a softy. My database gives it decent results.

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