The birds opening

I think the idea that Philwibb played was very nice, but honestly, I would not have played the h3 line for White.  The line can be tricky, and it is true that he had a pawn advantage in the opening, but he needed to create more threats and a defensive pawn shield.  I would never play that Qxd5 line unless I knew it inside and out.  I would consider the line that Larsen plays against these setups -

I think this is the best thing to say about Bird's. It will never be popular at master level, and there is a chance you'll just get steamrolled if your opponent is booked up. However, it is an interesting deviation from the standard opening moves that has plenty of good ideas and entertainment value. I think any curious class or club player should go ahead and give it a whirl. I'm sure if you study up a little, it will perform just fine.

Yes rednblack I do.  There is a variation in the Bird's called the Positional variation, where Black simply develops his king knight first.  Let's look at a bit of play.  I am going to use a surprising setup for White, as I want to encourage as many original streams of thought as I can on this forum.

 <peanutgallery>

I thought the surprising setup for White started at 1. f4.  I'd like to see some lines that continue 1.... d5 2. Kf2?! (Nimzo-Bongcloud Variation).  

</peanutgallery> 

lol f4 d5 Kf2...you're being adventurous to say the least!  I guess this would be a form of handicap chess - we can dub it the darkveggie variation of the Bird! lol.

To be serious, Kf2 is a waste of time, but to put it in a positional aspect, it would be wise to consider the fate of the f2 square, as it is always a hot item in opening theory, or f7 for Black. Honestly, I can't remember ever having to put my king on f2 early during any attack, as after Nf3 and e3, both Qh4 and Bc5 have lost their sting.  The king is good.  But if you wanted to give your opponent a reason to charge at the king, give it a whirl!  As a matter of fact, I challenge you to use it and win now!  If you try it, I will too lol.  And I will give you the results as soon as I play one - I play 15 minutes...maybe I can get in a game tonight.

Timothy Taylor wrote a book on the Bird's Opening, and in the book he also says that others recommend 1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Bg4 3. e3 Nd7 for black as the "recipe", but he argues that with daring play (Qxd5!?) white can still get the advantage. For example, 4. h3 Bxf3 5. Qxf3 e5 6. Qxd5 Qh4+ 7. Kd1 (not 7. Ke2? which has no advantages over 7. Kd1 but several disadvantages) O-O-O and we get a sharp position where white has an extra pawn, a big center, but awful development.

For other reasons that this "recipe"-variation, I gave up the Bird's Opening a while ago, but I happened to play one game in the Bg4 variation last weekend. Here's the game (which was quite nice by the way :P) with full annotations.

 For anybody reading french, there's an excellent site about the bird:

ouverturebird.free.fr

 http://ouverturebird.free.fr/theorie.php

Okay, I tried this Bird-Brain idea lol of f4 d5 Kf2 just for fun, and I lost in about 25 moves.  Here is the beginning of the game...don't take these ideas serious...it was my only loss tonight with 1. f4.

Okay, now I am going to post a more "tactical" variation of the Bird, called the Reversed Leningrad, or as Danielsen dubs it on his website, the Polar Bear.  Here are the beginning moves.

That isn't off subject a bit, since you are contributing directly to a forum with your own personal experience.  Those are all valid choices.  A lot of people fear the From's since they hate giving their opponents chances for tactical shots.  Same goes for KG.  But anyone who plays the From's would probably play King's Gambit also.  Staunton Gambit, that one is cool too!

Umm how does f4 offer queenside attacking chances? The whole point of the bird( or in most situations) is to have a massive kingside attack. And Besides, Grandmasters have played the Bird with success. Look up Grandmaster Heinrich Danielson, he is alive and plays the bird frequently with success.

The broadcast game from the Columbia Chess Club tonight is expected to be a Bird. You can view the game at www.columbiachess.com by clicking the yellow link at the top. The black player is expected to be chessrage from this site. Broadcast should start a little after 7:30 .

Please tell me you don't think 2. e4?! is better than 2. fxe5, Reb! From's Gambit, against anyone who plays the Bird's regularly, is completely unsound.

What would be some good moves after the initial setup. Would Nc3 work as it also covers the black square bishop.

Tell that to GM Henrik Danielsen!

If i play against the Bird's, I play From's Gambit. After Bxd6 I play the Nf6-Ng4 variation (called the "Mestel" after GM Mestel by IM Timothy Taylor in his book Bird's Opening)

But when playing against the From (I play Bird's all the time now), I just play e4 and transpose into a king's gambit lol

Against Sicilian I play:

1. f4 c5

2. Nf3 (anything not d4 that transposes)

3. e4(if they don't play Nf6, otherwise I play g3) (something for black)

4. Be2