An opening course for White (ECO E00-E09)
White plays the Queen's Gambit and puts the bishop on g2 instead of d3. Black usually takes on c4 and White usually lets it go, because the time and the diagonal are worth more than the pawn. What you get is a small advantage that lasts a long time, and what you give up is the chance to smash anybody in twenty moves.
This course is part of your daily work.
Everything is arranged around one diagonal. While Black's pawn sits on d5 the bishop is biting on granite; the moment it leaves, the bishop is looking at b7 and c6 and Black's queenside cannot develop comfortably. That is why White is happy to see ...dxc4, and why Black's whole problem is what to do about the light squares afterwards.
There are three standard ways to collect the pawn on c4: Qa4+ and Qxc4 early, Ne5 hitting it directly, or Qc2 and Qxc4 a move later. Which one is right depends on what Black has committed to. Getting the pawn back is not urgent, but it is not optional either: if it never comes back, Black is simply a pawn up.
In the main line the bishop steps to d2 and waits for Black to declare. A knight on c6 no longer gets to play ...c5. A knight on d7 walks into Ba5. A bishop on e4 becomes a target once White's pieces come at it. One quiet move, three different answers depending on what Black does with it.
Play precisely and Black never quite equalises: almost, but not quite, and the almost keeps its shape into a rook endgame. It suits players who are happy to be a little better for forty moves. It suits nobody who wants the game decided by move twenty-five.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
The Open Catalan is the main event. Black grabs on c4, White develops, and the pawn comes back a few moves later while Black is still trying to get the queenside out. These three lines are the three ways it comes back.
If the pawn never comes off d5 the bishop on g2 has nothing to bite on, and White has to open the position by hand. That means e2-e4, and e2-e4 needs preparation: the queen on c2, the bishop out of the way, and a knight on d2.
Three ways of refusing the Catalan bargain: strike at d4 with ...c5, shut the bishop out with ...b6 and ...Bb7, or wall the diagonal up with ...c6. Each one gives White something concrete in return.
Club games that started in the Catalan Opening produced these tactics, and you solve every one from White's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.
The Catalan Opening is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3, and it is filed under ECO E00-E09. This course teaches it from White's side in 9 drills across 3 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
Theory credited to
5 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
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