Polish Opening: Queen's Indian Variation
1. b4 e6 2. Bb2 Nf6 3. b5 b6
The Polish Opening: Queen's Indian Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. b4 e6 2. Bb2 Nf6 3. b5 b6. 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 135 times by this move order. White won 49%, 4% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 4. e3 (53% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.07 (Stockfish, depth 48; best line 4. c4 a6 5. a4 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/p1pp1ppp/1p2pn2/1P6/8/8/PBPPPPPP/RN1QKBNR w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. b4 e6 2. Bb2 Nf6 3. b5 b6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 22 | |
| 1500-1999 | 103 | |
| 2000+ | 10 | |
| All | 135 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. e3 | 72 (53%) | |
| 4. c4 | 23 (17%) | |
| 4. a4 | 19 (14%) | |
| 4. Nf3 | 18 (13%) | |
| 4. a3 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4. d3 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4. g3 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
13 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 38%, draw 8%, Black 54%). The strongest:
- IM Mark Timmermans (2385) – GM Anton Demchenko (2610) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 14th Sept · 2021-09-14
- IM Yuliia Osmak (2425) – IM Gulnar Mammadova (2382) 1/2-1/2 · Women's Speed Chess Q4 · 2021-06-03
- Vladimir Bordovsky (2340) – IM Ihor Nester (2269) 0-1 · 3rd Maksym Yusupov Mem · 2015-03-08
- IM Mark Timmermans (2385) – WIM Anahi Ortiz Verdezoto (2013) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 29th June · 2021-06-29
- Alexandru Chirpii (1768) – IM Ihor Nester (2346) 0-1 · 2nd Ceramica Corund Open · 2016-09-14
Search all games of the Polish Opening: Queen's Indian Variation and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- InBrTgAaaL (2203) – thebooly567 (2343) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
- easilyconfused (2184) – GibletGrey (2198) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 300 + 0s
- Abigails (2109) – Clausewitz44 (2119) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 600 + 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: 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
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.