Bird's Opening

I ran into Bird's Opening (aka Dutch Attack) recently, and I don't understand the logic. It seems that it is basically the English Opening, with the added downside of weakening your kingside right off the bat.

Any fans? Why would one play the Bird's rather than the English if one likes that sort of thing?

I like it because it can lead to some fun games.  Andy Soltis had a book on it that made it seem easy to understand & play.  There is a famous Lasker game too that genereated a lot of interest in the opening.  I don't think it's a really solid opening though for the reason you stated.  I don't see any of the high rated players using it.

There's a Grandmaster that uses Bird Opening and calls his opening the "Polar Bear System". He beats everyone with it. He can lose too though, he's not indestructable. But he makes it seem like the most perfect opening. I've won a number of games using that opening. But I lost a bunch too, so I don't use it much.

He makes this incredibly odd pawn structure that really chokes black and strangles his king especially if he does a king-side castle.

Moving the pawn to f4 stops any advances by black to e5 (unless black uses from's gambit 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3. exd6 bxd6). I have experimented with this opening and generally play the Mujanna Variation (i think thats what its called) 1.f4 d5 2.c4

If you play bird's then you can get your knight behind it in the next turn (f3), then e3, and gambit c4 pawn-that's why i play it

Don't confuse the Bird's with the English. The English leads to either queenside play or a stale symmetrical pawn structure. Bird's leads to a King side attack. You wouldn't confuse Sicilian with Dutch.

who is this guy and what is the opening?

if 1.f4 is already weak enough to be gambited off of, it's probably time for a new strategy...I never knew it was even a real opening until a year ago and I'd always done e5 in response

For what it’s worth… for the last year I have been playing here exclusively with Bird’s opening as a tribute to Charlie “Yard Bird” Parker but I digress.   As many other have noted it is susceptible to a brutal king side attach, however if you can manage to protect that weakness; it provides a foundation for some very unorthodox yet surprisingly sound attacks in the middle of the board.  My ranking has hovered in the 1150 to 1250 range, however I have managed to pull off some stunning upsets by forcing much higher  ranked “typical players” to delve in to the A typical  Bird Land  

The guy is GM Henrik Danielsen, and while he's not been playing it lately, he has pulled out some impressive games with it. Search up "Polar Bear System" on Youtube, you'll get a bunch of informational videos on opening lines.

It is nothing like the English opening. Of all the major opening moves 1. c4 is perhaps the one which is most unlike 1. f4.

Players rated over 2500 in my database who played 1. f4 in the twelve months ending October 2008 include Andres Rodriguez, Jakubiec, Granda Zuniga, Kritz, Evdokimov, Danielsen, Drazic, Arnin, Muzychuk, and Reinderman. A number of these seem to play it regularly.

Benefits of Bird's Opening:

1. It is has considerable surprise value. Very few players are more than generally prepared for this opening as opposed to the vast amounts of attention that many players lavish on their favorite defenses to 1. e4, 1. d4, and to a lesser extent 1. c4 and 1. Nf3.

2. It is perhaps the most thematic of all the major opening moves for White. By that I mean that White puts a definite stamp on the game. He minimizes the number of different types of middlegame he needs to learn and reduces his opponent's ability to control the direction of the opening. Black still has many choices of course, but not as many as in other openings.

3. Black has to play chess. I wouldn't know how to begin to construct a "drawing defense" to 1. f4. There are no Bird equivalents to openings such as the Caro-Kann, the Rubinstein French, or certain Queen's Gambit Declined variations. Virtually all Bird games are strategically complex and unbalanced.

4. From's Gambit (1.... e5). Any sensible Bird specialist is well-prepared for this opening and the theory while not clear-cut is pretty much in his favor. Black on the other hand is almost always underprepared because he either never really mastered all the complexities or he just plain forgot in the many months or years since he last faced 1. f4. Or White can just play 2. e4 (King's Gambit) which in OTB play is a Sicilian or French specialist's worst nightmare. I've used both in my time and it is very nice work if you can get it.

5. It is a sound opening. White often gains an advantage in practice and in theory Black is not entitled to more than equality.

I played it for a number of years and did very well with it (my USCF rating 1300-2100). Eventually I decided that specializing in such a narrow opening was limiting my further growth and I switched to 1. d4. But there is nothing wrong with it and for an amateur who has limited time and likes Dutch positions it is a good choice. Essentially it combines the well-known "sting" of the Dutch Defense with a lot less risk because the extra tempo protects you from a lot of the bad things that can happen when a Dutch goes wrong. And as noted above, while top GMs almost never play it (Bent Larsen was one of the last top GMs to use it now-and-then), a number of ordinary GMs do use it which shows that it is a viable choice.

i like the english opening more the birds opening is a bit confusing

Bird's can lead to wild tactical play ala the From, or slow closed positional kingside buildup(like a Dutch) depending largely on if black is aggressive or passive.  From's holds little worry for a modern master who has done his homework.  Bird's was very common and used by many top players in the nineteenth century-- but many players such as Bird himself suffered crushing defeats by not preparing for counter attacks.

I've played the Bird's for some time.  My interest in it renewed after I got the book by Timothy Taylor (which is very well written, by the way):

http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Opening-Detailed-Coverage-Underrated/dp/1857444027/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239283927&sr=8-1

It helps, at least for me, to also be familiar with the Nimzo-Larsen Attack since white's ideal setup gets an early b3 in further pressuring e5. 

My suggestion would be to look at the numerous databases of games online and play through a few where each side has his way with the game, perhaps look at the classic Bird games (Larsen, Bird and Zukertort playing white comes to mind) and try it out here if you like it!

English opening is too easy to predict but for Bird's Opening it is very hard to know what the opponent might think of as the next step.

f4 is not as good but playable. However, you can't overestimate this opening because then people think that you can count on a kingside attack which is by no means certain. The English is played more because it influences the center better, creates no weaknesses, and is very flexible for any type of central or queenside action. F4 is more wishful, but even I played it a few times.

I played in SuperNationals IV and got totally crushed by 1. f4 i think third round. I was not happy.

i play Bird's almost all the time when i'm white.  i love it. sure i lose from some, but i tend to have more success than not.  i've studied several games played with it and experimented in live with it a lot.  i have a pretty good system with it.  4 thumbs up here (and a bird)

90% of players have no really solid defense for it.  there are a few that make white pay dearly, most people have no idea what they are.  that's one of the best reasons to paly it.  but ieven if someone does know how to react, i still do ok with it.

Here is a group I helped to create if you are more interested in 1. f4...

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/birds-opening-lovers

It is a quite strong group on chess.com, and there is many ideas flowing in this group.  It is private, but we will definetely let you in.  We only keep it private so that if people decide to put foul comments on the page, they can be removed from the group.  That way, the environment of the group is friendly and respectable. 

You must understand the ideas behind 1. f4.  It is easy to dismiss something when you don't understand it, but the kingside is not as weak as it is often made out to be - only mishandled by players who aren't used to using one of their kingside pawns for more active duty from the move go.  As a matter of fact, I have played 1. f4 more than anything else.  I still go to other openings and try their ideas to learn new things, but I always come back to 1. f4, with a deeper positional appreciation of the lines. 

Often, once you know the lines, you can either look for at least equality, and at best a great advantage.  There are many routes to go.

Let me give you one of the most solid routes to adventure...1. f4/Nf3/e3/d4/Bd3/c3 - the Stonewall attack.  There is much more to 1. f4 than just this, but it is a nice solid opening with attacking potential on either wing, and even in the center if Black is careless.  But often White will be able to mount up a kingside attack, or play for queenside initiative, or at least play into an endgame with a solid position, and the hole on e4 can be monitored.  I have had some really complex positions, believe it or not, resulting from wild speculative play even in this opening.  The last time that I played the Stonewall, my opponent won the exchange (a bishop for a rook), but in exchange I had two bishops, two central pawns (actually three - one d pawn and two e pawns), a queen and rook developen on an open f-file.  My opponent was strictly defense after winning the exchange, and I managed to shove the pawns down his throat and create continuous pressure against his king, and finally capitalized.

My point it, don't give up on it yet if you don't understand it.  Give it more than a few tries, and see it if fits your style.  You need to find a style that works for you, and 1. f4 is not for everyone.  Like someone else said, 1. d4 offers more possibilities, but then you have to contend with the Dutch, and a well-versed Dutch player can be aggravating to a 1. d4 player (I have seen many 1. d4 players say they dread to see the Dutch!).  So there is a psychological plus there as well - it gets on certain people's nerves! 

The theory is not as well known, so your chances of getting a good game are good.  And plus, in many lines, you can practically force your line on Black, whereas in 1. e4, you have to see what they are in the mood for - you may need 10 different opening strategies at least in your bag.  With 1. f4, it is easier to get into a comfortable line more quickly.

Can you post an example of a game, I have never tried birds opening but it looks promising.