I'm around 1850 rapid on chess.com and I have tried studying Catalan opening on short&sweet course on chessable. Then I've played 4 games (3 won, 1 loss) and in that loss I blundered mate in 2. But the games were incredibly messy. Maybe I should study the course more though. Then I stumbled upon this where IM says you shouldn't play Catalan if you're below 2300. (link). So what are your thoughts on my situation?
Is the Catalan opening worth learning, and if it is how effective is it?
I’ve recently started playing the Delayed Catalan, and I absolutely love it. It’s simple, and doesn’t require knowing a huge amount of theory. It’s flexible, and there’s a lot of variety in play (the reason I gave up on the London) - I may not even end up with c4 at all, depending on how my opponent plays. And I think my favourite thing in the world is the fianchettoed bishop. So powerful. I’ve definitely won more than one game just because of that one piece.
ATM I don’t have any set openings for black. Are there any that share the qualities I like of the Catalan? They’re pretty much listed in order of importance above.
I also like the idea of a) an opening that can be played against both d & e pawn starts, if such a thing exists, and b) an opening that uses the c pawn rather than d or e. No particular importance attached to either of those bits, I just think both are a cool idea.
Is there an opening or two out there that ticks all or most of those boxes?
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 45%. (I'm a bot)
> The Catalan translator for the poem that American writer Amanda Gorman read at US president Joe Biden's inauguration has said he has been removed from the job because he had the wrong "Profile".
> It was the second such case in Europe after Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld resigned from the job of translating Gorman's work following criticism that a black writer was not chosen.
> "They told me that I am not suitable to translate it," Catalan translator Victor Obiols told AFP on Wednesday.
> Gorman, a 23-year-old African American, was widely lauded for her reading of her poem "The Hill We Climb" at Biden's 20 January inauguration.
> Obiols, who has translated works by William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, received a request from Barcelona publisher Univers three weeks ago to produce a Catalan version of Gorman's poem with a foreword by US television personality Oprah Winfrey.
> "But if I cannot translate a poet because she is a woman, young, black, an American of the 21st century, neither can I translate Homer because I am not a Greek of the eighth century BC. Or could not have translated Shakespeare because I am not a 16th-century Englishman."
Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: translate^#1 Gorman^#2 Obiols^#3 black^#4 poem^#5
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I’m a 1700 elo rated player so not very strong. But I’m getting back to chess and have an upcoming tournament so I would like your recommendations.
So my d pawn games would be
- d4 d5
- c4 e6
- Nc3 Nf6
Then, I would try to push the dark squared Bishop after an exchange for pin the knight on c3
My playing style is one that does not favour closed positions but also not explosive positions. I would like to maintain central control with the pawns but as I have failed with the Catalan,I’d be open to ideas. As black, I respond to e4 with the Sicilian dragon so that’s a bit of an insight of my playing style.
The reason why I liked the Catalan is because it developed your knight and you push the d5 and e6 pawns to give way to the dark-squared bishop to come to either b4 or capture the pawn on c6 after the exchange so this gave a natural square for the bishop and it seemed seamless.
However, one of the problems with this is White knows that I want to put or release the dark squared Bishop so they’ll push c5 , a3 or play some other waiting move that won’t let me develop my Bishop so I’ll be forced to either waste a tempo of playing Be7 or push g7 to fianchetto basically becoming a grünfeld defence but both my e and g pawns are already pushed. Thus making my light-squared Bishop more important but it’s blocked off by those very pawns and not yet developed.
I hope I’ve listed my issues well enough and I look forward to hearing about your recommendations. I’ve heard good things about the nimzo Indian but I’m not sure if I would be able to translate the lines I favour in Catalan to the Nimzo
I want to play the open catalan as black after 1. d5 d5 2. c5 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2
I check some lines in the a6 and c5 variation but I didn't like them very much and couldn't find books or videos about Bb4+ and Nc6, so if anyone knows something to study those lines I would appreciate it.
Hi all!
I'm a 27M passionate about languages, cultures and travel, so hit me up if you think we may have similar interests!
If you need any help with Spanish or Catalan, just DM me and we can arrange something! And even though I'm not a native speaker, I can help with English as well.
I'm also looking for a chance to practice English, French, German and Mandarin - to learn and improve further, or just to keep my skills on edge and avoid going rusty. And if you speak any other language and want to teach me a bit, go ahead and let me know! I always love a good challenge. :)
Nice to meet you people!
