Polish Opening

About this opening

With 1.b4 White grabs queenside space and prepares Bb2, from where the bishop bears down on e5 and the long diagonal: the Polish Opening, also known as the Sokolsky or Orangutan, confuses opponents from move one. Black's most direct reply is 1...e5, meeting 2.Bb2 with Bxb4, while the Birmingham Gambit 1...c5 keeps an independent flavor. Tartakower christened it Orangutan at New York 1924 after a zoo visit, and Alexey Sokolsky later wrote the first serious monograph on it.