Polish Opening: Schuehler Gambit

1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5 cxb5 4. e4

The Polish Opening: Schuehler Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5 cxb5 4. e4. It is a line of the Polish Opening. Black is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: −0.36 (Stockfish, depth 35; best line 4… b4 5. a3 Nf6 6. e5 Nd5 7. axb4)

ECO: A00
Moves: 7 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/1p1ppppp/8/pp6/4P3/8/PBPP1PPP/RN1QKBNR b KQkq - 0 4
PGN: 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5 cxb5 4. e4

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Master games

17 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 47%, draw 18%, Black 35%). The strongest:

GM Fabiano Caruana (2777) – FM Alvaro Torres Rebolledo (2318) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 10th Jun Early · 2025-06-10
IM Mark Timmermans (2399) – GM David W L Howell (2677) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 10th Sep Late · 2024-09-10
IM Mark Timmermans (2385) – GM Grigoriy Oparin (2652) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 18th May · 2021-05-18
FM Mark Timmermans (2387) – GM Jan Smeets (2600) 1-0 · ch-NED Internet 2016 · 2016-06-25
IM Mark Timmermans (2407) – IM Bojan Maksimovic (2512) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 29th Apr Late · 2025-04-29

Search all games of the Polish Opening: Schuehler Gambit and its sub-variations

Comes from

Polish Opening: Outflank Variation, Schuehler Gambit 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5

More Polish Opening lines (all)

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.