Catalan-type bishop -I

I experienced some games with the d4 repertoire from ICS. I am now in month 2, so I still miss several openings (like QGA, Chigorin, Albin, Tarrasch). So after 1.d4 d5 I decided to play 2. Nf3 for a while, until my repertoire will have all the holes patched. My ideea is to follow with g3/Bg2/c4 when possible and to try to lead the game to Catalan. The positions resulted are not always Catalan, but many ideas from it may be applied. I selected some games, not without mistakes of course. but this is the level of games i play now.
The reason why I disliked catalan few years ago was that in many variations the white just give a pawn. I am very fond of my pawns, I do not want to kiss them good bye without a very visible (to me) reason. However, i decided to give Catalan a try and see if white really can give the c4 pawn so easily.
Some notes about the below games:
- by dxc4 the black is increasing the white's catalan bishop scope, making it more active;
- Nf3-e5 is quite often used to open/activate Bg2; if black exchanges on e5, the e5 pawn can restrict black pieces significant;
- i like the ideea of Nbd2, to support both c4 and e4 squares;
- White Queen on a4 can work pretty well with Bg2;
- when black defends the c4 pawn, it waste time.
Games are slightly annotated, only related to opening issues or some other ICS materials till month 2.
and now the first game.

Another game. I know that the games below have mistakes, which may not be repeated in the future games. however, i included these games here because i think that some ideas typical to the theme are illustrated quite well. it takes few minutes to play the game in the very nice ChessFlash player, it is not waste of time.

And the last game from today's set. the opponent was better than the previous.

This is great stuff. Fun tactical games. It almost makes me want to try it.

Only two remarks:

1. In first game 26. Bh3 is quicker then 26. Bf1
2. In third game your analyse after move 11 isn't correct since after 11. ... Qxd2 white has lost his bishop that gives mate at on b4.

But it's still mate after 11. ... Qxd2 12. Rad1 Qb4 13. Bxc6+ bxc6 (13. ... Ke7 14. Qxb4#) 14. Qxc6+ Ke7 15. Qd7#

chesstiger wrote:Only two remarks:

1. In first game 26. Bh3 is quicker then 26. Bf1
2. In third game your analyse after move 11 isn't correct since after 11. ... Qxd2 white has lost his bishop that gives mate at on b4.

But it's still mate after 11. ... Qxd2 12. Rad1 Qb4 13. Bxc6+ bxc6 (13. ... Ke7 14. Qxb4#) 14. Qxc6+ Ke7 15. Qd7#

1. well, i may have lost my focus, since the position was won anyway.
2. you are right, however during the game i calculated that I win the Q at least.
Not only my opponents made mistakes, I make as well.

In game 1, in this position, you focus on eating the rook with your bishop.
Well, ok, but after knight exchange this gives you a rook for a bishop and 2 pawns down, which is not as bad as Bb7 for black.

As this moment did you evaluate this possibility or did you see for example that the intermediate Bc6 giving check allow axb5 and recapturing the missing pawns.

It is not immediate for me.

HK, for some reason I do not see the picture/position inserted by you. are you talking about the position after 9. Ne5? If yes, please note that white has a powerful in-between Bc6+. so 9.Ne5 Nxe5 10.dxe5 (fork) Bxe5 11.Bc6+ Nd7 12.axb5 and either Ba6 is lost or the entire rook is lost. also, the black c4 pawn will go anytime. a7, c7 black pawns are very weak, white has material advantage and positional pressure.

sorry HK, only now I read your post in full. yes, of course, the Bc6+ was important for me and I noticed it during the game.

For some reason, the picture did not show either for me now, it was showing when i posted.
Also the other pictures in the forum using http://things.thingmajig.org/mfen/ doesn't seems to show either. Hope it is a temporary failure, else i will have to find an other way to display FEN.

Yes it was after 9. Ne5, and you answered my asking.

Excel;ent watching the games. I apologise I still have not found time tom learn to publish games. It is amasing how much more you learn when somebody has "had a go". I promise to learn to publish before June is out.