Why is the polish opening so good yet never played?

I do like what some of you are saying, It's just that you are 886 and have no idea what you are saying. 

It's quite an interesting arguement but unfortunately chess.com doesn't check people's age before they get on this site.

Yeah yeah, you are just being elitists. That other guy got upset and started getting rude with me just because I disagreed and he expects to be worshipped for his national master title.

The same with you getting snarky with me and calling me a child just because I disagree with you.

I might not play the best all the time but that doesn't mean what I'm saying is wrong. Instead of disagreeing using actual points, you both get upset and start making low jabs.

I know exactly what I'm saying because I've done my research. You are the one who doesn't.

Thats not what I'm saying, You can disagree but you don't have to whine and pretend like you know everything.

I wasn't whining and I wasn't pretending like I know everything. I was making points and providing evidence.

It's actually the other way round and you're trying to negate all argument and all evidence by saying that I'm lower rated because you know better apparently. The only argument that other guy had was to constantly question and then when I calmly answered all of his questions he gets upset and calls me a chimp because I criticised his favourite opening.

I can provide you with the opinion of my coach (who is an IM). Keep in mind that I am an expert (about 2000 CFC) so this advice may not apply to you. At lower levels, openings are a lot less important. In short, the Sokolsky is perfectly playable, but it is not the best opening (mainly because it does not really present Black with any serious problems or weird dynamics).

Q: By chance, are you a regular user of the Sokolsky opening? I remember once seeing you looking at one of my games that featured it. I took it out of my repertoire due to style clash, but I've been thinking of adding it back in to help work on my positional play and endgames (I don't have the time to learn 1. d4. The Reti is already a massive time commitment).

A: It could be played I guess, but I wouldn't recommend it in tournament play as your opponent would have more than enough time to figure out how to play against it

Q: In tournaments, I'd probably use it against much higher-rated opponents. Much more likely to get the 1. b4 e5 lines there. It's very easy for Black to get a dry equal position otherwise

A: Ya, there's too many lines for black against b4 that give them good positions

Every opening has their wrongs. Polish probably has more wrongs than Ruy Lopez, if such a weird comparison must be made. 

But surely Samuel you are willing to die on this hill that its a bad opening, why? Surely you do have a pet line too, don't you?

Its just pointless to call someone a kid though.

I said it was slightly better for black. That other guy just got upset about that so I said it was garbage. Lol.

These were basically my points in the first place. I just got called a chimp for saying so and providing lines and evidence because I'm a lower rated player.

This was my original comment and he was basically like "SLIGHTLY BETTER FOR BLACK!? How dare you!"

I was more refering to this. I already said I am not agreeing with you getting called a chimp or a kid. Though I did chuckle ngl. 😆

Yeah I mean its common sense to do what you say but I don't think there is anything wrong with having a pet line.

Its another story if you called it trash to annoy the NM though. 😆

Lol, fair if you found it funny. The thing is if he's running his mouth calling someone a chimp then he can't expect to not get burned back. He didn't take it very well when I was teasing him though.

He was really fuming which is hilarious.

If someone enjoys the Polish and wants to play it that's totally ok. My original point was just that black is doing totally fine and often a bit better WHICH IS WHY it's not played that often. Some people just got a bit annoyed by that.

Thank you for this, Should I stick with this opening if I think I am good at it?

Yes, I agree that "chimp with a machine gun", while a funny wording, does a poor job of actually conveying his criticism in a constructive way.

In my personal opinion, you do rely too much on the engine when evaluating positions. Engine evaluations can be very deceptive, especially in the opening, as they do not tell us how easy it is to play the position and they will often change significantly after adding in just a few more moves. When evaluating opening positions, it's best to talk about the dynamics and plans on the board itself, and that's something that titled players are much better than the rest of us are at doing.

Yes, you should. The point of learning openings isn't always to get some nice advantage. The main goal should always be to get positions that you enjoy playing. Only consider changing it when you stop winning games.

Thank you very much, here is a great example of why I love the polish opening. Stockfish thought I was 2200!

I actually was not depending on the engine evaluation. That was only a minor point at the beginning.

I was mostly considering the game results of human players and I've also tried to give practical, understandable explanations for those results.

I completely agree that engine evaluations don't paint the whole picture which is why I continually considered the game outcomes of human players. Generally when I use the analysis board it's to find lines which are scoring well for humans and then look to see if there's an understandable reason for that. If I use the engine it's normally to also look at if there's an understandable refutation for a certain move.

I will give another good example.

This is a line I like against the Najdorf. Admittedly, this line is dubious and not the best for white. In fact, it's apparently equal now and the engine gives 0.0. When we look at the score however, a draw is much more unlikely because the position often results in tactical mayhem in which the better player wins.

I've not studied the Najdorf, what kind of tactical opportunities even are there?