The original line was as played by Alexander Wagner, a Polish player and openings analyst, against Kuhn in the 1913 Swiss Correspondence Championship.

Wagner published an analysis of the opening in Deutsches Wochenschach in 1914, when he was living in Stanislau, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine).

Modern Chess Openings (MCO-14, 1999) allots two columns to the Polish, commenting that the variants where Black waits and plays 2...b5 instead of 1...b5 are much safer.

Spassky equalized,[7] but rejected an opportunity to draw, as he was behind by a point in the match and with at most three games remaining, he was practically forced to play for a win.

In both of these lines Black reacts to White's Ng1-f3 and g2-g3 by contesting the fianchetto on the h1-a8 diagonal and gaining some space on the queen's side, taking the view that b7-b5 is superior to b7-b6.