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The Queen's Gambit & Catalan for Black Lasha Janjgava
Publisher: Gambit Publications

B) 4.b3 - This is not White's most promising variation of the Colle Zukertort. Black can also respond to 15.Ne3 with 15…Ne7, clearing the way for …Qb5 as well and covering the soft d5- and f5-squares. The Catalan is a chess opening which can be considered to be White adopting a mixture of the Queen's Gambit and Réti Opening: White plays d4 and c4 and fianchettoes the white bishop on g2. White can then aim for an early Qb3 to apply pressure on the Queenside in general and the b7 pawn in particular (although even here White needs to know something about the Queen's Gambit Accepted as Black can transpose to it with 4dxc4 ). I find that most players in my club mistake the French Defence as a passive, boring defence much like the Caro-Kann but with the added disadvantage of Black's light-squared bishop being hemmed in (which as Korchnoi so lovingly puts it,"his problem child") and remaining Instead, the Ruy Lopez (Anand, Kramnik), the Catalan (Kramnik), Petroff (Kramnik), the Slav/Semi-Slav/Queen's Gambit Declined (Anand, Leko, Kramnik, Topalov) are the rage these days. - A poor relative of the Catalan. The Colle is mainly effective against 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 and 1 d4 It can be as effective as the famous Catalan Bishop, only nudged along to the dark squares. Catalan Opening Part 3 ( 8 --- Nd5). It is generally known that in the closed openings, such as the Queen's Gambit, Black's Main problem is the development of the Queen's Bishop. He said the main reason was that he had prepared mostly for the Queen's Gambit Declined (he plays the Catalan) and that he hadn't really spent much time on the Slav. After 4Nc6 5.Bb2 Bg4 Black is equal. A common opening sequence is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2, though the opening can arise from a If black does not know the theory in details, it is easy for white to get advantage. By deviating at this early point White makes sure that the game will be played on his homeground. Black can a) 4.dxc5 - This is an attempt to play the Queen's Gambit accepted a tempo up but 4e6 probably gives theoretical equality. I didn't think the endgame presented . Nf6, so this is the classical starting position for the Queen's Pawn Openings. He tried 15.Ng3 and after 15…Qe6, traded on e6 as retreating would allow 16…d5 with equality.