About this opening
Catalan Opening: Closed Variation, Rabinovich Variation is an opening in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings,
classified under code E09. ECO group E (E00–E99)
covers Indian defences against 1.d4, covering the Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian, King's Indian and Catalan systems. This particular variation is reached
after 16 half-moves from the
starting position, with the move sequence 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Qc2 e6 5. Nbd2 Be7 6. g3 Nbd7 7. Bg2 O-O 8. O-O b5.
It belongs to the Catalan Opening family. Within that family this is a level-2 branch (the Closed Variation → Rabinovich Variation line).
The opening sequence in prose form: 1.d4 d5, 2.c4 c6, 3.Nf3 Nf6, 4.Qc2 e6, 5.Nbd2 Be7, 6.g3 Nbd7. From this position the encyclopaedia records no further canonical continuations — practical play branches into unnamed transpositions or returns to the parent line for alternative ideas.
Use the interactive board above to walk through the moves position-by-position. Click any move in the navigation to step backwards, or use the keyboard arrow keys. For statistical data — how often master-level players have reached this position, White's win-rate, draw frequency, Black's score — see the panel in the right column.
Caissly's coverage of E09 extends through every named sub-variation in this line and across all four locales (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian). Where editorial commentary exists for a specific variation it appears as the page body; otherwise the page presents the structural data, board, and statistics as shown here.