Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation
1. b4 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6
The Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. b4 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6. It is a line of the Polish Opening. White is to move. 2 named lines continue from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,656 times by this move order. White won 47%, 5% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 3. e3 (32% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.06 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. e3 a5 5. a3 O-O)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppppp1p/5np1/8/1P6/8/PBPPPPPP/RN1QKBNR w KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. b4 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 332 | |
| 1500-1999 | 1,042 | |
| 2000+ | 282 | |
| All | 1,656 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. e3 | 538 (32%) | |
| 3. c4 | 253 (15%) | |
| 3. Nf3 | 223 (13%) | |
| 3. b5 | 116 (7%) | |
| 3. e4 King's Indian Variation, Schiffler Attack | 113 (7%) | |
| 3. Bxf6 | 109 (7%) | |
| 3. g4 | 86 (5%) | |
| 3. a3 | 85 (5%) |
Master games
297 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 13%, Black 46%). The strongest:
- GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (2747) – GM Li Chao2 (2720) 1-0 · World Blitz 2016 · 2016-12-29
- GM Jeffery Xiong (2652) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2795) 0-1 · chess.com Speed 1m+1spm 2017 · 2017-08-30
- GM Vladimir Fedoseev (2704) – GM Daniil Dubov (2720) 1/2-1/2 · World Blitz 2021 · 2021-12-29
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2768) – GM Gawain C B Maroroa Jones (2623) 1-0 · Titled Tue 15th Nov Late · 2022-11-15
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2830) – IM Mukhiddin Madaminov (2512) 1-0 · Titled Tue 19th Mar Early · 2024-03-19
Search all games of the Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Fraysinator (2710) – kasparik_garik (2629) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Fraysinator (2703) – kasparik_garik (2633) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Fraysinator (2698) – Banan555 (2610) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Polish Opening 1. b4
Continuations
- Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation, Schiffler Attack A00 · 1. b4 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6 3. e4
- Polish Opening: King's Indian Variation, Sokolsky Attack A00 · 1. b4 Nf6 2. Bb2 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. e3 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. d4
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: Karniewski Variation A00
- Polish Opening: Myers Variation A00
- Polish Opening: Outflank Variation A00
- Polish Opening: Outflank Variation, Schuehler Gambit 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.