Catalan Opening

Quiet moves, endless pressure · for White · medium

Born at the 1929 Barcelona tournament (Tartakower named it for Catalonia). The professionals' slow squeeze: Queen's Gambit structure plus a laser-beam bishop. Kramnik and Carlsen turned it into a title-match staple.

What you'll actually face

Built from millions of real games in your rating range — not master theory you'll never see:

• e4 — played in 67% of games at club level
• d4 — played in 22% of games at club level
• Nf3 — played in 3% of games at club level
• e3 — played in 2% of games at club level

Every move explained

• d4: Grab a center square and open lines for your queen and dark-squared bishop. Every Catalan starts here.
• c4: The Queen’s Gambit move: offer the c-pawn to pull Black’s d-pawn away from the center.
• c4: The second big pawn arrives, hitting d5 from the side and claiming space.

Chess Openings is a free trainer: the bot plays the replies real opponents choose at your level, every move is graded, and your weak spots get retested until they stick.