Bird Opening

I haven't ever been familiar with the opening, and have only had it played against me a few times.  I am hopelessly devoted to a certain very few openings (mainly 1.d4 2.Nf3 as white).  

But to become a better player I realize I need to know some of the lesser known openings, which do have their own strengths.

I decided to look at the Bird and try it out.  I think that it can be a nice surprising weapon against an opponent who is not familiar with it.  The White King looks weak at first but with the right play can give you a very good position.

Below, my first try with the Bird.  Although my opponent did make a couple late mistakes giving away a piece or two (10 minute blitz), I feel it is solid and am comfortable playing it some more now.

I like the fianchettoed Queen Bishop here. Any other fans of the Bird?

In the Bird the basic idea is f4 e3 Nf3 b3 Bb2 and maybe later advance in the center with d3 Nd2 and e4. There are also some funny traps in the From's gambit, which is the most interesting response by black.

There's a whole group devoted to the opening. If you're interested, you should join us there!

There's a few different variations that you can play such as the Leningrad (which involves a kingside fianchetto), and a few different gambits (such as 1. f4 d4 2. c4?!) 

For some great videos on The Bird Opening, check out Henrik Danielsen's videos on youtube (he refers to it as the Polar Bear system).

Bird's Opening.

Bird is playable -- that's the best that can be said. Why spend time on something which isn't particularly dangerous. No one worries that you might play Bird -- even if you're super booked up on it. It's just not that sharp a weapon -- black has too many ways to cause you problems. There are openings, or early variations of openings, that are sound and not totally common with more to offer the White player than Bird's.  For example Vienna Game... It's much more trouble for Black. 

Maybe not dangerous at higher levels, but let's say I am playing someone well-versed in the popular openings.  I think it's a viable option for someone who wants to avoid drowning in 15 moves of theory...i say definitely good for a surprise.

Thanks for all the input on the Bird opening 

I don't mean not dangerous at higher levels, I mean not dangerous at any level. Well, you sound determined to give it a try, and there's nothing wrong with that. Investigation is the best way to learn. Six months from now tell me if you agree or not:

1. Bird doesn't confuse booked up opponents -- it lets them use transpose to their favorite lines in a half-dozen other openings including the King's Gambit, Vienna Gambit, and colors reversed Dutch Defense.

2. You constantly find yourself under pressure in the opening rather than being the one who applies the pressure.You often find you are too busy solving problems in your position to create problems for your opponent.

3. Your practical results are mediocre.

This doesn't mean you can't/won't win games with 1.f4 -- of course you'll win some. Good luck. Prove me wrong, win em all. 

The question of how many openings to know is quite the entertaining one. My friend is currently getting bored of his main line (d4 as white) and wants to expand his openings, yet he's scared of doing e4 due to a wide variety of different types of positions.

Anyhow, I typically play 1. e4 as white. If c5 then the sicilian, against e5, the Vienna. One thing about playing openings off the beaten track is that you want to pick openings which give you good play if your opponent doesn't know the theory. If black doesn't play 3. Nxe4, white gets a very nice position arising from 2. Nc3, but I'm not sure if this sort of thing happens in the Bird.

Also, use a unique reply to 1.e4 . I recently started using the caro-kann. Reason I say it's unique (it's not) is that most players don't play the normal 2nd move...

I agree with the above, as the reason I stay away from e4 and mostly play d4 as White.  To me I have an idea of the type of position I want, and a general set of moves to get there.  To me it's easier than memorizing opening lines.

To me, it takes more opening knowledge to play e4...considering the multitude of sharp openings that can pe played against it.  In my opinion, d4 is more "open".

And I'm not saying the "Bird is the Word"..just thought it was neat, lol. And probably can be used to beat some decent opponents. I'm quite sure overall it isn't generally as good as most.  Just gets people out of their comfort zone, especially in a timed game, which probably was nearer to my point. Definitely better to study these...

I haven't played much of the Caro-Kann yet

I know of atleast 1 super gm that had around 63% with the Bird, which is hardly a bad score.

Just checked some database games from the past year... bird isn't getting played a lot, but the results are not bad at all... and I didn't realize Nakamura had been using it! (In my earlier post I'd almost written... "How good can 1.f4 be if Nakamura won't play it?" -- Doh! he's played it 8 times in the past year, and done well with it.)

Well, all I know is, when I play 1.f4, it sux 

The Bird's is the Dutch with one tempo up: nothing more, nothing less

hi

I play the Bird. It's an inferior opening and a no-plus better position maker... but.

Who can give me a superior opening? a winning opening? no one.

The Bird is for player that love close positions, with a long series of positional moves. We can have king's attack or queen attack, we have to know what are strong square and pawn attack (less the bishop pair for ex.).

Sure, black always have a solid position, frequently with no idea for how to win the game.

I'm a player with 1996 ELO. I've played Bird with a score of 9/12 (2 lost, 2 draw) in the last year (official games), with black more less (unfortunately).

bye

(sorry for my english)

One thing is that if you play the Bird to get the Stonewall formation you can play the d4 canard instead avoiding the From gambit