Lifetime Repertoires: Neo-Catalan - Part 1 - GM Sam Shankland

Opening course on the Neo-Catalan by GM Sam Shankland
Includes video and PGN

Language: English
Lectures: 14
Total Running Time: 10 hours 15 minutes

From the course:

The First and Finest Repertoire on the Neo-Catalan

The sturdy Catalan. It's an opening that's been played by almost every Super-GM over the last 50 years, and for good reason. It's a thorn in the side for any player as Black, and White assumes almost no risk playing it.

The Neo-Catalan has all that but makes your opponents work harder while you work smarter. By learning it, you'll be able to achieve solid and low-risk Catalan positions while depriving Black of their most potent anti-Catalan weapons. And because you do not play the traditional move order with 1.d4, this opening is uniquely suitable even for 1.e4 players.

Lifetime Repertoires: Neo-Catalan - Part 1 is a repertoire that can accompany you throughout your entire chess career. You'll start with 1.c4, and against almost every legal first move by Black, you will play 2.g3, preparing a fianchetto of your light-square bishop with long-range central control.

The subtleties of the move orders contained in the course make it easy to confuse your opponent and grab an advantage, as the positions may look familiar to Black, but in reality, you are dragging them into unfamiliar territory.

What you'll get inside:

🧩 Avoid transposing to d4 lines with a truly unique repertoire- many club players will be thrown off when you don't play d2-d4, the usual Catalan move order

🧩 A powerful fianchettoed light-squared bishop that puts Black's lifeless bishop on c8 to shame

🧩 No-risk, constant pressure on Black's position- with quick sensible development and early kingside castling, you're basically bulletproof from early aggressive attacks and gambits

🧩 Four sections structured from easiest to hardest on Black's replies- early sidelines, g6/Bg7 systems, Queen's Gambit-style systems, and Slav-style systems