Early Queenside Thrust in The Bird
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Thanks for the game, makes me rethink d5 to f4. Hmmmp, I'm going to have to study this soon. I rarely play people who use the Bird opening.
Desiderata, 2.c4 shouldn't make you rethink of playing d5 to f4. It's an interesting move but really not that good, and black played the opening badly in the sample game. 4...f6? was a crude mistake,archieving nothing while weakening the position, and 3...c5!? possibly already a bit risky an the opened rightly says. 5...Bd7 was also possibly worse than Nd7. The position is already nice for W, but B continued to play bizarre moves. Around move 15 the game was already lost for B.
This is of course not meant to deny than the game is interesting and well played from the W side (well done mezmer!) but only to underline that W second move is not the source of B difficulties. 1.f4 d5 remains a very good and economical defence.
Aug 26, 2011
0
#4
Bresando's absolutely right. 1... d5 is still a very strong defense to 1.f4. The Sturm gambit is just an interesting move that can steer the game into unfamiliar waters that can be more tactical / less positional than a classical Bird. Chances are that you're opponent won't play this, but if you're familiar with some of the themes of the Queen's Gambit, you should be comfortable enough.
I compiled a chess database of 740 Sturm Gambit (1.f4 d5 2.c4) games
from my 50 million chess game database. So if you send me your email
address I will send you the games in either pgn or chessbase cbv format.
my email address is @msn.com">cjnakamura1.@msn.com.
I believe that I also played this gambit but called it the Bird Regina Nu
Gambit with the moves 1.f4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.b3 gambiting another pawn.
This appeared in my article called the Regina Nu Gambit at chessville.
Also is there a way to post those 740 games as a download at the Bird Opening
Group? I also joined the Birds Opening Group and downloaded the 6 games.
Best Regards
DarthMusashi
Sep 11, 2011
0
#6
Hi Darth - thank you very much for your offer
With posting downloads, I'm not sure how it's done, but if you check with the staff, they could probably answer your question.
This is an opening that I'll play with 1. f4 when black replies with d5 and I'm feeling adventerous. The opening is called the Sturm Gambit or Mujannah Opening. It involves offering 2. c4 for quicker development and a strong attack on the queenside. Whether black takes, advances, or defends, it looks like white still has a good game ahead.
I've posted some other games with this early c4 in the Bird's Opening Lovers Forum, but I thought that I would share this one here to hopefully generate some more interest in the Bird - a somewhat disrespected, but strong opening. And for those of you that do play it, it's another possible variation to look in to.