Polish Defense

Polish Defense
abcdefgh
8
a8 black rook
b8 black knight
c8 black bishop
d8 black queen
e8 black king
f8 black bishop
g8 black knight
h8 black rook
a7 black pawn
c7 black pawn
d7 black pawn
e7 black pawn
f7 black pawn
g7 black pawn
h7 black pawn
b5 black pawn
d4 white pawn
a2 white pawn
b2 white pawn
c2 white pawn
e2 white pawn
f2 white pawn
g2 white pawn
h2 white pawn
a1 white rook
b1 white knight
c1 white bishop
d1 white queen
e1 white king
f1 white bishop
g1 white knight
h1 white rook
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Moves1.d4 b5
ECOA40
OriginKuhn vs. Wagner A., Swiss Corr. Ch. (1913)
Named afterPolish Opening
ParentQueen's Pawn Game

The Polish Defense is the name commonly given to one of several sequences of chess opening moves characterized by an early ...b5 by Black. The name "Polish Defense" is given by analogy to the Polish Opening, 1.b4. The original line was

1. d4 b5

as played by Alexander Wagner, a Polish player and openings analyst, against Kuhn in the 1913 Swiss Correspondence Championship. Wagner published an analysis of the opening in Deutsches Wochenschach in 1914, when he was living in Stanislau, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine).[1]

Later the name was also applied to

1. d4 Nf6
2. Nf3 b5

and other lines in which Black plays an early ...b7-b5, which are sometimes called the Polish Defense Deferred.

  1. ^ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1996) [First pub. 1992]. "Polish Defence". The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 313. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.