ChessBase Catalan Powerbook 2025

ChessBase Catalan Powerbook is a specialized Catalan opening book, designed to be used with ChessBase and Fritz to provide very deep move trees, based on statistics rather than a traditional game database. The games on which the Catalan Powerbook is based have an average elo rating of at least 2300. Over 415,000 engine games and 55,000 games from the Mega 2025 + 2024 Letters Database exceed this elo threshold and form the basis for the Catalan Powerbook 2025.

From White's point of view, Catalan is an opening where you can always rely on the enormous strength of the Bishop on g2. For Black, Catalan is a rather unpleasant opening. In fact, you want to play Nimzoindish or the Queen's Gambit and now have to deal with an aggressive Bishop on g2. However, Black has a variety of systems to choose from (all of which White should know). Besides the long main moves, where you can play 6...dxc4 or close, the initial deviations - 4...Bb4+ or 4...dxc4 with other options - have been proven in practice.

The Catalan Powerbook 2025 is based on over 415,000 human games and around 55,000 human games, for a total of over 470,000 games. The minimum threshold for each game is 2,300, so the Powerbook also provides reliable statistics on rarely used minor variations. Here's a little exploration from White's perspective: 4.g3 dxc4 5.lg2 a6 6.0-0 Nc6 - all the most frequently used moves so far.