The Brilliant Bird's: Part 1 Tricky Traps
Hi guys, and welcome back to The Chesser’s Blog!
Today, we will be looking at the Bird’s Opening. This is by far my favorite opening filled with all types of neat tricks and traps. In fact, that’s what we will be looking at in this blog! This will win you (at least) 90% of your games if you are a beginner (100-900) and you are playing against other beginners. This amazing opening was not named after birds, but actually after the chess player, Henry Bird. He was the one who played this opening tons and won many games with it. So let’s go to our first, the shortest, and also my favorite trap in the Bird’s Opening!
The Swiss Gambit
Two common things that beginners do are copying their opponents and taking whatever material they can. When they see White play 2.e4, they take the free pawn. Then, they take the other pawn when White plays 3.d3 which allows white to develop the bishop.This is just like From’s Gambit (more on that in Part 2 coming out soon!) but flipped around. Only two moves stop the threat of Qa5! . They are Nf6 and g6. Nf6 is by far the most common move, but if your opponent is careless, they can lose instantly.
And then there’s g6, but I mean come on. Who is going to play g6? I haven’t played a single game where they have played g6. And even if they play g6, you can still harass them. Also, you would be way ahead in development.
Noah’s Ark
I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t Noah’s Ark from the Ruy Lopez? It is but it can also occur in the Bird’s opening. In fact, I’ve had lots of games against 1500s where they play Bh5 and lose embarrassingly. They want to keep the pin, but it doesn’t work out well for them. Of course, if you’re playing somebody that is actually good, they won’t fall for this but it is still worth it to kick out the bishop. Also, this doesn’t only occur in this line. If the f pawn is still on f4 and the black bishop has just come into g4 kick it out. Remember, if there is an escape route, this doesn’t work. For example, if the black h pawn isn’t there, this trap doesn’t work. Also, it doesn’t work if the e pawn has been pushed to e6.
The Altered Greek Gift
This was a brilliancy by the second world champion, Emanuel Lasker. This is the whole reason I learned how to play the bird. Here, you sacrifice the bishop by taking on h7 to open up the kingside. You need the rook and the queen for this attack. But, to successfully sacrifice, you must get the knight on f6 out. You should trade that knight for another knight so that the knight can’t take on h7 when the bishop gets sacrificed.
Well, thanks for reading this blog. Hope to see you play this in your games, and if you do, I would love to see them so send them to me. Maybe I could use them in other blogs. Speaking of other blogs, I am going to make another blog in this series: The Brilliant Bird: Part 2 Fighting the From’s! So, be sure to look out for that one. I hope you enjoyed this blog, and I will see you next time!
