This is a game I played in an OTB tourney recently. I hope you enjoy it.

Any comments would be appreciated. As you can tell by the ratings this was an good win for me. I was quite pleased with it.

"Polish Avalanche"

nice game =)

Wow, that is a great game. I wonder, do the majority of the games with 1. b4 involve some sort of queen side advance/pawn storm? After going through your game, I'm inclined to pick up that book.

I have never seen anything like that opening :O.

No idea what I'd do if I saw it in an OTB game.

"Play 1.b4!" is the best opening book I've ever gotten. There will be people here who will tell you that it is "unsound" or just plain "doesn't work". That is completely untrue. This demonstrates it quite clearly. Sokolsky won a great many games with this opening (aka the "Orangutan" or "Polish Attack"). IM Yury Lapshun has also played it many times.

Anyways... This is one of the first two games I've used this opening in a tourney. I beat two 1900s for the first time. One of them I was beating on time because he had no idea how to play against it. That is another advantage to playing an off beat opening. Personally, I'd say these are great results =D.

Check2008: Yes, the main point of this opening is queenside play. Oftentimes it leads to positional games, while other times it can lead to oddly effective queenside pawn storms.

GMs tend not to use it because they can equalize most off-beat openings at the drop of the dime or they'll book you to death.

They still don't joke around with it.

Against the Sokolsky, I would play the e6. I like it more than e5 as Bb2 hits e5 instantly.

In league games for my club, Iv'e always done a little better with Black than White.

In 2006, I played 1 b4 exlusively with White in all my OTB games, and finished the year with my White score 14½/16. In the draw I was unable to win with a Rook. g and h pawn against a lone Rook, and one loss.

But for some reason, I struggle with it online.

Well... unless you're talking about the Bible, I don't see how anyone could "book" someone who is using the Polish. This is like, the only book written on it. There are few others that even mention it.

thecaveman: 1...e6 is a common response to 1.b4. I think most prefer 1...d5 however.

If nobody has any comments on the middlegame, I'm happy to talk about the Polish... but it would be nice to have some comments on the rest of the game.