Dealing With Sidelines - Bird's Opening
𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝗪𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 - 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐝'𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠
How do you deal with unusual early moves by the opponent?
Do you get 𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥, wondering 'why didn't I look at this recently?'
Do you get 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵, believing 'I'm gonna crush this guy in 20 moves?'
Or, do you stay 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, appreciate that your opponent is basically playing a 'normal' opening a tempo up (if they're White) or a worse version of a 'normal' opening (if they're Black)?
In this post, I'll share with you a simple counter to the 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐝'𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝟏.𝐟𝟒), which will allow us to see how we can adapt our ideas, based on the opponent being a tempo up on the Dutch Defence, after Black's best reply, 𝟏...𝐝𝟓.
The first point to note is that the 'Classical' setups with 𝟏.𝐟𝟒 𝐝𝟓 𝟐.𝐍𝐟𝟑 𝐠𝟔 𝟑.𝐞𝟑 do not allow White to equalize. For instance, 𝟑...𝐁𝐠𝟕 𝟒.𝐁𝐞𝟐 𝐍𝐟𝟔 𝟓.𝟎-𝟎 𝟎-𝟎 𝟔.𝐝𝟑 𝐜𝟓 𝟕.𝐐𝐞𝟏 (the most common move; 7.Ne5 Nfd7 and 7.Nc3 d4 also fail to impress) 𝟕...𝐍𝐜𝟔 𝟖.𝐍𝐜𝟑 𝐝𝟒 𝟗.𝐍𝐝𝟏 𝐝𝐱𝐞𝟑 𝟏𝟎.𝐍𝐱𝐞𝟑 is the most common line for White...
...But after 𝟏𝟎...𝐞𝟔 followed by ...Nd5, Black is significantly better, effectively having an English Opening where White spent 3 tempi with his knight to reach the ineffective e3-square, while weakening himself with f4.
On the other hand, Stonewalling with 𝟺.𝘥𝟺 is not a significant improvement, as after 𝟺...𝘤𝟻 𝟻.𝘤𝟹 𝘘𝘤𝟽 (a waiting move that also covers c5) 𝟼.𝘉𝘥𝟹 𝘕𝘩𝟼 𝟽.𝟶-𝟶 𝟶-𝟶 𝟾.𝘕𝘣𝘥𝟸 𝘉𝘧𝟻, Black is ready to exchange White's good light-squared bishop without damaging his structure, and White is slightly worse.
This is why most strong Bird players go for the 'Polar Bear' approach with 𝟏.𝐟𝟒 𝐝𝟓 𝟐.𝐍𝐟𝟑 𝐠𝟔 𝟑.𝐠𝟑 𝐁𝐠𝟕 𝟒.𝐁𝐠𝟐 𝐍𝐟𝟔 𝟓.𝟎-𝟎 𝟎-𝟎 𝟔.𝐝𝟑, with the point that White can use his extra tempo dynamically to either push in the centre with 6...c5 7.Qe1 Nc6 8.e4 (although the the thematic counter-strike 8...dxe4 9.dxe4 e5! is still marginally better for Black)...
...Or open up the bishop with 7.Ne5!? - a specialty of IM Rudik Makarian, which is basically the 'Iranian Variation' (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.c4 Ne4) with an extra tempo.
In online blitz/rapid, many of the trickiest GMs in the world have been essaying the double fianchetto 𝟔...𝐛𝟔!?, which is the move I'll be investigating for the rest of this post. It reminds a lot of the recommended 6.b3 Double Fianchetto approach vs. the Leningrad Dutch in Avrukh's classic 'GM Repertoire' work.
A possible disadvantage of 𝟔...𝐛𝟔 is that, with the long diagonal opened, suddenly 𝟕.𝐞𝟒 becomes possible for White - and that is the reason I had dismissed 6...b6 in the past.
However, it turns out that Black can actually 'call' White with 𝟕...𝐝𝐱𝐞𝟒 𝟖.𝐝𝐱𝐞𝟒 𝐍𝐱𝐞𝟒 𝟗.𝐍𝐠𝟓 𝐍𝐱𝐠𝟓 𝟏𝟎.𝐁𝐱𝐚𝟖 𝐍𝐞𝟔, sacrificing the exchange for very interesting compensation - while setting a devilish trap that even caught out many of the older engines. What White should play is 𝟷𝟷.𝘉𝘦𝟺 𝘕𝘥𝟽, when Black's lead in development and White's open king gives at least full compensation for the exchange, but the game continues.
Instead, the 'human' approach of 𝟏𝟏.𝐐𝐱𝐝𝟖 𝐑𝐱𝐝𝟖 𝟏𝟐.𝐁𝐟𝟑 𝐍𝐝𝟒 𝟏𝟑.𝐁𝐝𝟏 𝐁𝐡𝟑 𝟏𝟒.𝐑𝐞𝟏, seemingly holding everything together, runs into a beautiful tactical blow: 𝟏𝟒...𝐍𝐛𝟑!! 𝟏𝟓.𝐚𝐱𝐛𝟑 𝐁𝐝𝟒 𝟏𝟔.𝐊𝐡𝟏 𝐁𝐟𝟐, and Black wins back the exchange. After 𝟏𝟕.𝐁𝐞𝟐 𝐁𝐱𝐞𝟏 𝟏𝟖.𝐑𝐱𝐚𝟕, most of the previous games saw Black defend the pawn with 18...c5, but I found a nice improvement - 𝟏𝟖...𝐁𝐟𝟐!!
The point of this beautiful move is that, if you give Black time to play ...Nc6-d4, his pieces will have immense energy, which White will have a hard time resisting. But if White does grab the material, with 𝟏𝟗.𝐑𝐱𝐜𝟕 𝐍𝐚𝟔 𝟐𝟎.𝐑𝐱𝐞𝟕, Black plays 𝟐𝟎...𝐁𝐜𝟓! 𝟐𝟏.𝐑𝐞𝟓 𝐟𝟔, and White must lose the exchange in some form with a winning position for Black, as 𝟐𝟐.𝐑𝐞𝟒 𝐁𝐝𝟕! and Bc6 still wins the exchange.
Now that we understand this critical point behind 6...b6, we should of course round up our coverage with a few 'quieter' setups that White can play. Unfortunately for White, most of these approaches allow Black to 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞.
𝟽.𝘕𝘤𝟹 𝘉𝘣𝟽 𝟾.𝘕𝘦𝟻 (the order can be interchanged) 𝟾...𝘕𝘣𝘥𝟽 is one example, where I would find it easier to play Black, but objectively White is not worse off.
A quieter approach like 7.c3 Bb7 8.a4 is not really the way to make full use of White's extra tempo, in my view, and after 8...c5 9.a5 Qc7, Black is slightly better.
Finally, 𝟕.𝐐𝐞𝟏 strikes me as tautologous when White can play e4 directly, but White has had some wins at a high level with the plan of 𝟕...𝐁𝐛𝟕 𝟖.𝐡𝟑 𝐜𝟓 𝟗.𝐠𝟒, going for some 'Grand Prix' style attack with f5/Qh4/Bh6/Ng5. However, one can't really expect such an attack to objectively work without the required central control, and after 𝟗...𝐍𝐜𝟔 𝟏𝟎.𝐜𝟑 𝐝𝟒! 𝟏𝟏.𝐍𝐚𝟑 𝐍𝐝𝟓 𝟏𝟐.𝐁𝐝𝟐 𝐞𝟔, White has a gaping hole on e3, and Black is clearly for choice.
This post demonstrates the way in which I demonstrate the key ideas of openings - 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲, so that you can 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬, with the 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 that you 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 what you are doing. This makes it much easier to adapt your ideas for when the opponent does something a bit different.
If you would like to 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲, comment 'Mastery' below!
