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I agree. To have success with this one must really be a specialist who is up on all the tricks and traps. It is anti-positional and essentially hands over the initiative. 1.b3 achieves as much but without the inherent weakness on b4. Not sharp, but sounder.
Everyman came out with a book last year
Play 1 b4!: Shock your opponents with the Sokolsky
The book is OK I am told Tim Taylor may be coming out with a book on 1.b4 this year. The opening is interesting to play and not "bad" for White as long as he knows the correct themes. Many times Black does not know what is doing or is over confident.
Feel free to disagree. It is perfectly playable for anybody under 2200. Bent Larsen played it three times last year. It does not require a lot of theory and allows White active play. I am not saying it is the BEST opening but for most players it is perfectly suitable.
Larsen is still alive and playing? I remember back aroud 1970 he like to play the Bird but via 1.b3 2.f4. I remember he lost a candidates match to Fischer 6-0-0!!
um... you must remember that the polish is not all about the orangotang variation: b4-e5 a3.
there is also a possibility of playing b4-e5 Bb2, going for a more "classic Polish" style game.
Yes Larsen is still playing. He lives in South America and is in poor health.
What my original post implied was this is a perfectly playable opening for most players. As uritbon mentions there are differing strategies on how to play it.
Regardless of its soundness (most say it's "playable"), you really shouldn't be reading books on opening theroy. Learning opening theroy is prehaps the worst thing you can do to your chess, because so much rote memorization of opening lines is involved.
The Sokolsky is a perfectly playable opening for white, although I don't recommend it when you're first learning.
I think that most openings cannot be classified as either good or bad. As Siegbert Tarrasch stated: "There are no good or bad openings, only good or bad chess players."
Chess Games Home »
Database: My Chess Game White Black
| move | games | white wins / draw / black wins | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1...e5 | 201 |
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| 1...d5 | 67 |
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| 1...Nf6 | 41 |
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| 1...e6 | 26 |
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| 1...b5 | 11 |
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| 1...b6 | 9 |
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| 1...Nc6 | 9 |
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| 1...a5 | 7 |
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| 1...g6 | 7 |
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| 1...f5 | 6 |
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| 1...c6 | 5 |
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| 1...a6 | 3 |
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| 1...d6 | 3 |
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| 1...f6 | 3 |
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| 1...c5 | 2 |
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| 1...g5 | 1 |  AWARDCHESS - malko (2008) |
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| 1...h5 | 1 | AWARDCHESS - Ziena78 (2008) |
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| 1...h6 | 1 |  AWARDCHESS - doingme (2008) |
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| 1...Na6 | 1 | AWARDCHESS - mcollier (2008) |
Apr 13, 2009
0
#13
bookmarkbar wrote:
Regardless of its soundness (most say it's "playable"), you really shouldn't be reading books on opening theroy. Learning opening theroy is prehaps the worst thing you can do to your chess, because so much rote memorization of opening lines is involved.
Not learning any opening theory is about the worst thing you can do to your chess because you can lose the game before it's really begun, especially with a 'trappy' opening.
jonnyjupiter wrote:
bookmarkbar wrote:
Regardless of its soundness (most say it's "playable"), you really shouldn't be reading books on opening theroy. Learning opening theroy is prehaps the worst thing you can do to your chess, because so much rote memorization of opening lines is involved.
Not learning any opening theory is about the worst thing you can do to your chess because you can lose the game before it's really begun, especially with a 'trappy' opening.
I believe that there are much more important things to do with a beginner's time that learn opening "lines". However I do believe he should learn how to develop his pieces well and conrol the center without creating huge weaknesses in position.
Apr 14, 2009
0
#16
RyanMK wrote:
jonnyjupiter wrote:
bookmarkbar wrote:
Regardless of its soundness (most say it's "playable"), you really shouldn't be reading books on opening theroy. Learning opening theroy is prehaps the worst thing you can do to your chess, because so much rote memorization of opening lines is involved.
Not learning any opening theory is about the worst thing you can do to your chess because you can lose the game before it's really begun, especially with a 'trappy' opening.
I believe that there are much more important things to do with a beginner's time that learn opening "lines". However I do believe he should learn how to develop his pieces well and conrol the center without creating huge weaknesses in position.
When I played as a kid I got to the equivalent of 1850 FIDE without learning a single opening, but got into the habit of thinking that it was good to 'get out of book' and avoided learning any opening theory. However, I found this habit very difficult to break and now I'm older I find it much harder to commit new lines to memory.
My chess advancement was significantly limited because I frequently had to fight back from a poor position after the opening - it did good things for my tactical play, but when I started playing again last year I had to almost relearn the game again. Learning basic opening principles and thoroughly learning one or two openings along with reading a few books on strategy has been the best thing I have ever done for my own chess improvement.
It depends on if you are really working to learn the opening, as opposed to memorizing lines. If you learn the moves, and thev purpose behind them, and why some moves in some positions are just bad, you go a long way toward avoiding early crushes and knowing how to punish "free spirits" who want to do their own thing and reinvent the wheel each game. The purpose of studying openings in the early stages is to learn themes: not memorize strings of moves you will very likely never see. Four games this week I have won or now have a won position in the same opening because opponents made the same thematic error, dropping material within the first6-8 moves. Now twin games with the same moves--but not knowing what the themes of this variation of the X Defense entail. Learn the basics of whatever system you choose and you will most certainly begin scoring better by avoiding some typical mistakes and knowing what positions and tactical opportunities byou should be aiming at. If you want to use the Polish, learn the basic traps to avoid and winning themes and you will outscore players of higher rating who didn't do their homework.
Apr 14, 2009
0
#18
Doctorjosephthomas wrote:
It depends on if you are really working to learn the opening, as opposed to memorizing lines. If you learn the moves, and thev purpose behind them, and why some moves in some positions are just bad, you go a long way toward avoiding early crushes and knowing how to punish "free spirits" who want to do their own thing and reinvent the wheel each game. The purpose of studying openings in the early stages is to learn themes: not memorize strings of moves you will very likely never see. Four games this week I have won or now have a won position in the same opening because opponents made the same thematic error, dropping material within the first6-8 moves. Now twin games with the same moves--but not knowing what the themes of this variation of the X Defense entail. Learn the basics of whatever system you choose and you will most certainly begin scoring better by avoiding some typical mistakes and knowing what positions and tactical opportunities byou should be aiming at. If you want to use the Polish, learn the basic traps to avoid and winning themes and you will outscore players of higher rating who didn't do their homework.
I completely agree - I've nearly finished a Sicilian Dragon tournament and a French Winawer tournament, and in both of these I was able to use the same themes several times to my significant advantage. I'd looked at one of the featured games on this site in some depth just before the tourney began and was able to use the exact same idea twice! The games were won by the early middle game.
However, in 'trappy' openings, it is very important to know the tactical traps better than your opponent or you should avoid playing the opening. Sometimes this requires learning a series of moves.
Awardchess - you know this opening better than most of us here - could you list a few of the known tricks you've come up against?
Does anyone know good books about b4 (Polish)?
Thnks,Nate