I had a very embarrassing game where the board was upside down and when my opponent played the Bird opening the notation showed the pawn was on the c-file and I thought "oh he's playing the English opening, let's go for the symmetrical variation".

Only after I played1...f5 did I realize what I had done and quickly got myself into a terrible position and lost the game.

I did think that I had played the worst possible move on move 1, but then I found out that this is actually a real opening move and has been played many times by Bent Larsen

https://www.chess.com/openings/Birds-Opening-1...f5

What is the idea behind this move? It seems so bad to me but Bent Larsen was a great player and that makes me think there must be something to this move.

At levels up to maybe 1500, playing the feoms gambit is quite good.

Here the clear threat is checkmate. They should play NF3 and you will face this variation a lot.

Bird Opening with 1...f5

?

That's the subject of this thread and what I am asking about. Not From's Gambit or how to play against Bird's opening etc. I'm asking specifically about 1...f5

How to deal with symmetrical openings is an interesting and important subject. Kids I teach often ask about this and how to handle it from White`s point of view.

But just don't play it

I don't see what's so terrible about 1. - f5.

It creates the same King weaknesses as 1.f4 does and has the disadvantage of being down a tempo (as black) so white can attack your king first.

White's tempo advantage is small, as the position is closed. The opening seems completely playable. As far as mixing up your openings go, you came out of this one quite unharmed.

Yeah, it is a closed position and white does not have any crushing replies to 1...f5. White can play a gambit with 2.e4.

It's hard to reason about 1.f4 f5 without reference to actual moves. For example, one could say that 1.f4 is "weakening, not developing, etc." and therefore black could more easily get away with a "weakening, not developing" move like 1...f5 against 1.f4 than against other first moves by white. Hugh Myers used similar "logic" when inventing the defense 1.c4 g5, stating that black's best defenses to 1.g4 did not involve 1...c5, therefore 1...g5 is more playable against 1.c4 than against other white first moves. And the statement "It creates the same King weaknesses as 1.f4 does and has the disadvantage of being down a tempo (as black) so white can attack your king first." could be countered with "White wasted the first move with 1.f4 so any attack against 1...f5 was squandered already." In other words, for the same of argument, if 1.f4 is okay for white when black has not created any weaknesses, then 1...f5 could be even better for black when white has started with the weakening 1.f4!? Not that this is a _true_ statement, rather it shows the limitations of reasoning about chess without relation to actual positions and actual moves.

Regarding 1.f4 f5 2.e4 (this gambit goes by different names) -- Again, reasoning in English language (as opposed to reasoning in chess moves) can only get us so far. So, one could say that in the From's Gambit after 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5, the move ...f7-f5 plays no part in any of black's best variations, and therefore the move f2-f4 is unlikely to help white in the Reversed From's Gambit.

But to get at the truth on the chessboard, we must always refer to chess moves. There is a book Lonsdale (2015) Bird Opening: Wagner-Zwitersch Gambit: 1.f4 f5 2.e4 https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Opening-Wagner-Zwitersch-Gambit-1-ebook/dp/B0168RO1HQ , and we would do better to look at the actual games as the starting point for saying how 1.f4 f5 2.e4 for white compares with 1.f4 e5 for black.

Note that this is a speed chess game.

The opening explorer shows that 1...f5 is black's the 8th most popular move

The more commonly played second move for white (and the one I saw in my game) is 2.Nf3

Kevin,

  Always appreciate your posts.  After f4 f5, I feel black is at least equal after any white 2nd move. As other's have pointed out, symmetrical games are inherently drawish, while gambit lines lead to a more a decisive outcome.

Please tell me how to put a chess game into a post. Thanks.

Funny response. Master level games on LICHESS White wins 27%, Draws 41%, Loses 32%.

This reminds me of a "Berliner position", ironically named for World Correspondence Champion Hans Berliner, as discussed in the USA magazine Chess Life and Review in the 1970s: Full symmetry except white has an extra rook, white is on move, yet black wins.

I stand corrected.

When you are writing post there is a little chessboard icon above the typing area on the left. Then you can either input the moves or input a pgn file.

Awesome, thank you!

Bird Opening is one I use surprisingly often.