Anybody know anything good to do with the Polish Opening (1. b4!?)

The Polish Opening or The Sokolsky Opening (also called The Orangutan) is an uncommon chess opening in which White opens with 1.b4. According to ChessBase, in master level chess, out of the twenty possible first moves from White, 1.b4 ranks ninth in popularity.

The opening has never been popular at the top level, though a number of prominent players have employed it on occasion (for example, Richard Réti against Abraham Speijer in Scheveningen 1923 and Boris Spassky against Vasily Smyslov in the 1960 Moscow–Leningrad match). Perhaps its most famous use came in the game Tartakower–Maroczy, New York 1924.[1] The name "Orangutan Opening" originates from that game: the players had visited the zoo the previous day, and Tartakower had consulted an orangutan there about what move he should open with the next day. Soviet player Alexei Pavlovich Sokolsky (1908–1969) wrote a monograph on this opening in 1963, Debyut 1 b2-b4.

The opening is largely based upon tactics on the queenside or the f6 and g7 squares. Black can respond in a variety of ways: perhaps the most principled is to make a claim to the centre (which White's first move ignores) with 1...d5 (possibly followed by 2.Bb2 Qd6, attacking b4 and supporting e7-e5 (Martin 2004)), 1...e5 or 1...f5, though less ambitious moves like 1...Nf6, 1...c6 (called the Outflank Variation, preparing ...Qb6 or ...a5), and 1...e6 are also reasonable. Rarer attempts have been made with 1...a5 or 1...c5. 1...e6 is usually followed by ...d5, ...Nf6 and an eventual ...c5. After 1.b4 e5 it is normal for White to ignore the attack on the b-pawn and play 2.Bb2, when 2...d6, 2...f6, and 2...Bxb4 are all playable. After 1...a5 White will most likely play 2.b5 and take advantage of Black's queenside weakness. 1...c5 is much sharper and more aggressive and is normally used to avoid theory. After the capture Black will generally place pressure on the c5 square and will develop an attack against White's weak queenside structure.

Careful... the article you cut and pasted is copyrighted. I believe Wikipedia usually allows copying their articles as long you credit them similar to as follows:

 

The material in this post is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sokolsky Opening".

david, are you trying to play the opening or play against it? Chesslecture.com has a short but useful video on how to play against it and other uncommon openings. I know an expert who uses it as their primary opening, so it's quite playable.

 

 Here's the mainline:

1.b4 e5 - e5 begins to control the center and attacks White's b-pawn. 

2.Bb2 Bxb4!? - White counter-attacks, and Black allows the swap!?

3.Bxe5 Nf6 - White won a central pawn for a wing pawn, but he's lagging in development. Black has a reasonable middlegame to look forward to.

White scores 44% in this line. So you have a slight advantage, but don't get carried away thinking it's a won position! That's how people lose.

likesforests wrote:

david, are you trying to play the opening or play against it? Chesslecture.com has a short but useful video on how to play against it and other uncommon openings. I know an expert who uses it as their primary opening, so it's quite playable.

 

 Here's the mainline:

1.b4 e5 - e5 begins to control the center and attacks White's b-pawn. 

2.Bb2 Bxb4!? - White counter-attacks, and Black allows the swap!?

3.Bxe5 Nf6 - White won a central pawn for a wing pawn, but he's lagging in development. Black has a reasonable middlegame to look forward to.

White scores 44% in this line. So you have a slight advantage, but don't get carried away thinking it's a won position! That's how people lose.

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Thanks for the advice!

Remember that the Sokolsky Opening is very similar to Grobs attack. Instead of 3. Bxe5 a thing to try would be 3. f4 . Now if the opponent is silly enough to take the pawn (doubtful, but it happens) youve got a pawn and a rook to claim. Otherwise, it continues fine anyway, try to play c3 or c4 and release the queen for a powerful attack on the king.

If you're defending against 1. b4, I suggest either 1... d4 or 1... a4. There are many things you can play around with in this opening. The symmetrical variation (1.b4 b5) yields particularly interesting results; you could follow up with 2. Nc3 or a3.

According to my database, White plays 3.Bxe5 in 95% of games and 3.f4 in 5% of games, but 3.f4 is definitely an interesting sideline. An easy reply is 3...d6. Black scores a whopping 65% and the position has similarities to the mainline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White has eliminated Black's central pawns, but Black has a 3-piece development lead and attacking potential along the e1-h4 diagonal. As always, the best player should win!

I already said Black has a development lead in return for White's central pawns. I should add that Black is obligated to launch an attack soon and secure at least some concessions! If he doesn't do that, White will catch up in development, and then White's central pawns may become overpowering. The above game shows how to do that.

Sokolsky Opening, Symmetrical Variation.

Wow! Thanks Everyone!

Wow! Thanks

So you know, 25. ... Qxg1# for black . "Of course the game could have easily gone to black" indeed! This is to demonstrate that games w/ the symmetrical v. can go either way, and yield very interesting results.

Black to move. What would you do? Who do you think would win?

WEdgards wrote: Black to move. What would you do? Who do you think would win?

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I'd try to open up some space by playing d5. Then march the e pawn down the board

I can't say I reccomend that: 11. ... d5? Nxe5 and if played out causes serious problems for black.

Black is up a pawn and has traded a knight for a bishop. Unfortunately for black, the position does not leave too many favourable moves. At this point, blacks least unpleasent options are in my opinion castling kingside, or Bb2 to remove white's ability to castle queenside and to move Qg5 and put pressure on Black's kingside.

In afterthought, 3. e4 was a bad move (which should have been followed by 3. ... Nxb4, 3. c3 would have been better, and possibly continued by 3. ... d4 4. b5 Nd4 5. Bxf8 Rxf8, trading a bishop for a bishop, and black loosing the right to castle kingside. Or, perhaps 3. ... b5 which would turn into something very similar to the position shown earlier, as b5 prevents b5.

I'd personally be happy to play 11...Nh5 (headed to f4) and on 12.g3 play 12...f5, and if 12.Qh6 then 12...Bb2 looks like a winner.  I don't really see where white can get and as far as I'm concerned, my king in the center is just fine.  One last thing, if 12. d4 then 12...f6 and followed by O-O looks fine for black.  The position has white commiting to something in the next two to three moves.  All black has to do is steer clear of wherever white decides to attack, and just punch on the other side of the board. 

I'm a Pole but I don't play it .

I hadn't thought of Nh5 but, why 12. g3?

My whole point of 12. g3 is to prevent the knight from heading into f4, which if Bf1, white is undeveloping and black can just go about his business along with excellent activity.  That's my two cents for what it's worth.

Huh, I hadn't thought of it that way.