Bird opening

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Bird opening
  a b c d e f G H  
8th Chess rdt45.svg Chess ndt45.svg Chess bdt45.svg Chess qdt45.svg Chess kdt45.svg Chess bdt45.svg Chess ndt45.svg Chess rdt45.svg 8th
7th Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg 7th
6th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 6th
5 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 5
4th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 4th
3 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 3
2 Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg 2
1 Chess rlt45.svg Chess nlt45.svg Chess blt45.svg Chess qlt45.svg Chess klt45.svg Chess blt45.svg Chess nlt45.svg Chess rlt45.svg 1
  a b c d e f G H  
Trains 1. f2-f4
ECO key A02-A03
Named after Henry Edward Bird

Template: Infobox chess opening / maintenance / new

The Bird opening (also in Dutch in a suit ) is an opening of the chess game , named after the English chess player Henry Edward Bird . Their ECO codes are A02 and A03. It is one of the closed games and begins with the move

1. f2-f4

The basic strategic idea of ​​this opening lies in the control of the center square e5, which is usually supported by moves Ng1 – f3, b2 – b3 and the fianchetto of bishop c1 to b2. The namesake Bird himself used this opening move 92 times in his approx. 250 traditional white parts (+37 = 11 −44).

The German ex-world champion Emanuel Lasker played the most famous game with the Bird opening : Lasker - Bauer, Amsterdam 1889 .

The most common black replies to the Bird opening are:

1.… d7 – d5

This sequence of moves corresponds to the Dutch Defense with reversed colors (1. d2 – d4 f7 – f5). According to the black structures there, white can line up here, e.g. B. with 2. g2 – g3 and Bf1 – g2 as in the “ Leningrad system ”, or, as an alternative, with the development of the king's bishop to e2, d3 or b5 as in “classic” Dutch. Tylkowski - Wojciechowski, Poznań 1931 , also went this way. The move 2. c4 leads to the Mujannah opening .

1.… e7 – e5 ( Froms Gambit )

This pawn sacrifice is mostly accepted by white players (2. f4xe5), but 2. e2 – e4 with transition to the king's gambit is also possible .

1.… Ng8 – f6

Black waits here with d7 – d5 and instead reserves the right to various Indian structures.

1.… g7 – g6

Here White could move into different lines of Modern Defense with 2. e2 – e4 along with d2 – d4 , while d2 – d3 (instead of d2 – d4) would correspond to the usual schemes of the Bird opening.

1.… f7 – f5

In this unusual variant, the Swiss gambit 2. e2 – e4 is possible in addition to a normal line-up, for example with fianchetto .

1.… g7 – g5 ( Hobbs Gambit ). Mirror image of the Volga Gambit .

In this variant, Black immediately tries to open the g-file with the pawn lever ... g7 – g5 .

Lot

Bird played the following game around 1880 with the white pieces ( location and opponent unknown ).

1. f2 – f4 d7 – d5 2. e2 – e3 c7 – c5 3. Ng1 – f3 e7 – e6 4. b2 – b3 Nb8 – c6 5. Bc1 – b2 Ng8 – f6 6. Bf1 – d3 (nowadays one would say 6 Bf1 – b5 and possibly prefer Nf3 – e5) 6.… Bf8 – e7 7. a2 – a3 0–0 8. 0–0 b7 – b6 9. Qd1 – e1 Bc8 – b7 10. Qe1 – h4 g7 – g6? 11. Nf3 – g5 h7 – h5 12. g2 – g4! Nf6xg4? (Rescue possible: 12.… d5 – d4 and evenly balanced) 13. Qh4xh5 g6xh5 14. Bd3 – h7 #

popularity

According to a database available on the chessgames.com website, 1. f2 – f4 is the sixth most frequently played opening move (out of a total of 20 possible moves). The English opening , in which a bishop-pawn - the one in front of the black bishop - is moved (1. c2 – c4), is played about 20 times as often. The data published on chessgames.com indicate that the Bird opening is not only played relatively rarely compared to the more popular openings, but is in fact unfavorable for White and even has a positive balance for Black (as of January 2020) : White won 34.2% of the games, 23.7% of the games ended in a draw and Black won 42% of the games. The average point yield for white is therefore only 46.05%. In chess, one point is traditionally awarded for the winner and 0 points for the loser of a game. If the game ends in a draw, both players receive half a point. Thus half of the percentage of undecided games is included in the average point yield for White: 34.2% + 0.5 * 23.7% = 46.05%.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Hobbs Gambit with theory table including games, accessed on June 12, 2019.
  2. Online Chess Database and Community - Opening Explorer, accessed April 20, 2020.