Chess Opening Theory/1. f4

Bird's Opening
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/5P2/8/PPPPP1PP/RNBQKBNR b
Moves: 1. f4
ECO code: A02-A03
Parent: Starting position

1. f4 · Bird's Opening

Bird’s Opening is an aggressive and less common opening, named after the chess player Henry Bird. This opening weakens the h4-to-e1 diagonal, and weakens White’s kingside, but helps control the centre and is good for players who don’t want to study openings. Black can respond with 1...d5 (Dutch variation) or 1...e5 (From’s Gambit); if White accepts the gambit, it creates more kingside weakness, and White must play carefully as a mate is easily seen with 2…d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. Nc3 Qh4+ 5. g3 Qxg3+ 6. hxg3 Bxg3#. Overall, this opening can be fun for club players and can usually lead to a tactical and aggressive game.

Statistics

Approximate chances

White win 35%, Draw 25%, Black win 39%

Estimated next move popularity

d5 49%, Nf6 15%, e5 11%, c5 9%, g6 8%, d6 2%. Other moves less than 0.5%.

Theory table

1. f4

	1	2	3	4
	f4 d5	Nf3 Nf6	e3 g6	Be2 Bg7	=
	... Nf6	Nf3 g6	e3 Bg7	Be2 O-O	=
	... e6	g4?? Qh4#	N/A N/A	N/A N/A	0-1
From Gambit	... e5	fxe5 d6	exd6 Bxd6	Nf3 Nf6	∞
Symmetric Variation	... f5					∞
	... g6	Nf3 d5	e3 Bg7	d4 Nh6	=

All possible Black's moves

Quick Navigation

Na6 a6 a5

b6 b5

Nc6 c6 c5

d6 d5

e6 e5

Nf6 f6 f5

g6 g5

Nh6 h6 h5

References

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.

• Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.