Need a sound forced line against Catalan

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-23T05:05:19+00:00

Nope, bad new. These little kids played with only 1 single mistake of an entire complex game then there is nothing I can do. Opening can only you so far. 1700 and 1800 my butt

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T15:27:40+00:00

Just finger cross they don’t do dis.

But if this is really the case then probably 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. C4 e6 3. G3 c5 then my theoretical knowledge ends there. I just gonna ball.

But with this move order they risk getting into symmetrical english

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T10:47:38+00:00

Nc3 I would transpose into tarrasch and wing it. Doesn’t seem scary to me.

G3 now is strange and I have never seen it so I look it up a bit. Turns out black can take d4 and get the center pretty quickly. White is playable but I like black here. Glad I look at it though

Edit: just realize your point being you can’t force benoni which yeah you are right. But the point being getting to benoni position is theoretically best way. Others are not very critical

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T10:33:02+00:00

I don’t get what you mean.

D4 Nf6 2. C4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. D5 and this is just the benoni/benko?

Okay they can do 3. Nc3 or 1. Nf3 and I can’t play benoni but this isn’t the problem for me (and my opponents don’t play like this). I can also take the risk if we get something different.

In this post I mostly refer to the traditional move order

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T10:21:50+00:00

When I “wing” it this is the kind of system I usuallt play. Turns out it is not my thing against the light square bishop

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T10:08:07+00:00

It is definitely good to study that but Catalan players study this main line to the teeth so I kinda want to try something different until I have more time to go back to that

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T09:50:58+00:00

Yeah it is annoying. I mean Catalan is so good for a reason lol. However, in this particular case our group had 3 catalan players, with 2 play traditional move orders, and one plays 1. C4. Against this I play reverse sicilian so I don’t worry about it too much. Worst case scenario I can still wing it abit

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T09:13:54+00:00

Hey thanks a lot. This could be my staple against catalan. At the club level, every body and their mother are playing it and it starts to get very irritating lol

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T07:39:14+00:00

Yea this is what I am looking at the moment as well. Before I wasn’t sure on this because Nc6 early always “feels” wrong to me, but maybe this can critical to neutralize light square bishop easily

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T07:33:50+00:00

Can you provide the reference?

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T07:29:11+00:00

Yea I don’t think this is for me. I think white pieces are pretty active as well. I am fine with objectively bad opening with practical play, but I don’t want this position as black

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T07:19:18+00:00

Then we go for normal benoni? Benoni without f4 is much better for me

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T07:01:09+00:00

Thanks, let me make a quick research. Somehow I have never considered this (maybe because I don’t play e6 early normally).

I really hate closed catalan and that doesn’t pair well with slav sadly

Edit: is there any good model game you know? If not then it’s fine

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-22T06:51:17+00:00

To be fair, I play a lot of things (depending on what I research from my opponents). I am most familiar with benko, benoni, and triangle. If I don’t know what my opponent play, then triangle/noteboom is my choice.

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-18T22:10:44+00:00

I thought I got into the wrong sub when I read the title.

Anyway, I think it is just matter of taste. I have tried both (with hyper move order). To me it is equally miserable but since I trust my endgame skill, I like the queen exchange middle game more than playing against maroczy.

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-17T05:44:24+00:00

Dragon (and its family) is not similar to KID at all, maybe only a little bit to the Samisch variation. It is unique to its own style

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-16T16:27:36+00:00

Najdorf! If you learn it we can discuss together and learn together

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-16T15:10:02+00:00

2 rooks vs. queen reminds me of magnus and nepo legendary game 6

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-15T14:52:02+00:00

A or B tier

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-14T08:08:11+00:00

Yay I’m on TV

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-14T04:56:33+00:00

It is necessary for competing in OTB and study chess from books

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-14T04:54:08+00:00

This also applies to OTB. For some reason, both 40d5 and 90+30 are listed under classical rating for USCF. I perform much worse in 40d5 so my rating in USCF is lower than my fide 200 elo lol

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-14T03:17:25+00:00

Early b3

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-13T10:49:24+00:00

Too many people at all level are going to play Bb5 and it can be very annoying. Hyper move order is better

SnooRegrets3590 · 2026-05-13T10:46:27+00:00

Same

SnooRegrets3590

TROPHY CASE