Polish Opening: Birmingham Gambit
1. b4 c5
The Polish Opening: Birmingham Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. b4 c5. It is a line of the Polish Opening. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 996 times by this move order. White won 50%, 3% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 2. bxc5 (64% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.32 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 2. bxc5 e5 3. e3 Bxc5 4. Nf3 d6)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 2 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/1P6/8/P1PPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2- PGN
1. b4 c5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 253 | |
| 1500-1999 | 626 | |
| 2000+ | 117 | |
| All | 996 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2. bxc5 | 633 (64%) | |
| 2. b5 | 178 (18%) | |
| 2. Bb2 | 147 (15%) | |
| 2. a3 | 26 (3%) | |
| 2. c3 | 7 (1%) | |
| 2. Nc3 | 2 (0%) | |
| 2. c4 | 1 (0%) | |
| 2. Ba3 | 1 (0%) |
Master games
23 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 22%, draw 8%, Black 70%). The strongest:
- FM Zachary Tanenbaum (2359) – GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (2656) 0-1 · 2nd 3-0 Thu 12th Feb 2026 · 2026-02-12
- IM Mark Timmermans (2385) – GM Eduard Andreev (2422) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tuesday 1st June · 2021-06-01
- IM Mark Timmermans (2395) – IM Mads Vestby-Ellingsen (2336) 0-1 · Titled Tue 19th Mar Late · 2024-03-19
- IM Mark Timmermans (2392) – FM Ari Guz (2324) 1-0 · Titled Tue 16th May Late · 2023-05-16
- Emil Krstev (2156) – IM Radoslav Dimitrov (2459) 0-1 · Karpos Open 2014 · 2014-03-30
Search all games of the Polish Opening: Birmingham Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Fraysinator (2663) – lestri (2626) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- IM Tello71 (2438) – konyaetliekmegi (2405) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- gshl10 (2298) – GSRAkz (2436) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
Polish Opening 1. b4
More Polish Opening lines (all)
- Polish Opening: Baltic Defense A00
- Polish Opening: Bugayev Advance Variation A00
- Polish Opening: Bugayev Attack A00
- Polish Opening: Czech Defense A00
- Polish Opening: Dutch Defense A00
- Polish Opening: German Defense A00
- Polish Opening: Grigorian Variation A00
- Polish Opening: Karniewski Variation A00
- Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation A00
- Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation, Schiffler Attack A00
- Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation, Sokolsky Attack A00
- Polish Opening: Myers Variation A00
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.