Polish Defense
1. d4 b5
The Polish Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A40, reached after 1. d4 b5. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 5,438 times by this move order. White won 52%, 4% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 2. e4 (36% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.05 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 2. e4 a6 3. a4 b4 4. Nd2 e6)
- ECO
- A40
- Moves
- 2 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/p1pppppp/8/1p6/3P4/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2- PGN
1. d4 b5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 2,040 | |
| 1500-1999 | 2,648 | |
| 2000+ | 750 | |
| All | 5,438 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2. e4 | 1,955 (36%) | |
| 2. Bf4 | 955 (18%) | |
| 2. Nf3 | 900 (17%) | |
| 2. e3 | 535 (10%) | |
| 2. c4 | 323 (6%) | |
| 2. Nc3 | 212 (4%) | |
| 2. c3 | 83 (2%) | |
| 2. Bg5 | 75 (1%) |
Master games
899 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 46%, draw 14%, Black 40%). The strongest:
- KomodoDragon 2894.00 (3600) – Stockfish dev15_20220401 (3617) 1-0 · TCEC 22 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-04-15
- Stockfish dev15_20220401 (3617) – KomodoDragon 2894.00 (3600) 1-0 · TCEC 22 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-04-15
- GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2731) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2829) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 7th Nov Late · 2023-11-07
- GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2670) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2853) 1-0 · Superbet Rapid 2023 · 2023-05-21
- GM Alexander Grischuk (2759) – GM Vladislav Artemiev (2746) 1/2-1/2 · chess.com Speed 2019 · 2019-10-03
Search all games of the Polish Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- gagoteveyu (2771) – ChessWarrior_222 (2803) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- WFM haski_2014 (2605) – ChessWarrior_222 (2816) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Con_Knuppel (2604) – ChessWarrior_222 (2792) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Continuations
- Polish Defense: Spassky Gambit Accepted A40 · 1. d4 b5 2. e4 Bb7 3. Bxb5
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.