Polish Opening: Karniewski Variation
1. b4 Nh6
The Polish Opening: Karniewski Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. b4 Nh6. 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 11 times by this move order. White won 55%, 0% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 2. Bb2 (82% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.29 (Stockfish, depth 38; best line 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 e5 4. Nxe5 Bxb4)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 2 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppppppp/7n/8/1P6/8/P1PPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 2- PGN
1. b4 Nh6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 4 | |
| 1500-1999 | 3 | |
| 2000+ | 4 | |
| All | 11 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2. Bb2 | 9 (82%) | |
| 2. Nc3 | 1 (9%) | |
| 2. b5 | 1 (9%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Erubinic (2215) – Mryagut (2229) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- Knokle (2170) – Maxlrainer (2183) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- Cavalier-Bleu (2091) – knot01 (2102) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 300 + 0s
Comes from
Polish Opening 1. b4
More Polish Opening lines (all)
- Polish Opening: Baltic Defense A00
- Polish Opening: Birmingham Gambit 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: 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.