Everyone has an opening that they use regularly simply because they want to.
The Bird Opening
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Maneesh and Jonathan used to play Bird's Opening fairly often (and perhaps still do). I suspect it is the common reason for playing a non-mainline opening - that it puts you on more familiar ground than your opponent. I suspect any opening that is reasonably sound at club level and is not played often will find adherents who like the fact it is sound and uncommon. Even though some opponents won't mind it a bit, there will be plenty who dislike it - which is often reward enough to keep playing an opening.
the bird is the word.
TheWorm wrote:
Maneesh and Jonathan used to play Bird's Opening fairly often (and perhaps still do). I suspect it is the common reason for playing a non-mainline opening - that it puts you on more familiar ground than your opponent. I suspect any opening that is reasonably sound at club level and is not played often will find adherents who like the fact it is sound and uncommon. Even though some opponents won't mind it a bit, there will be plenty who dislike it - which is often reward enough to keep playing an opening.
I play Bird's Opening, and I entirely agree with this assessment for why I play it. Aside from anything else, irregular openings are fun and leave much room for creativity in the early stages of a game.
FirebrandX wrote:
The Bird is a good transpositional tool as well in order to flow into system openings like the reversed Nimzo or reversed Dutch lines. The downside I think is you have to be prepared for From gambit specialists. It's the one line where you have to play black's game instead of your own (unless you know the King's gambit well enough to transpose into that). That's why I prefer 1.b3 and follow up with f4 at the appropriate time.
Most Bird players would be prepared to face From's Gambit, and with accurate play white can hold on to the pawn.
FirebrandX wrote:
LindenLyons wrote:
FirebrandX wrote:
The Bird is a good transpositional tool as well in order to flow into system openings like the reversed Nimzo or reversed Dutch lines. The downside I think is you have to be prepared for From gambit specialists. It's the one line where you have to play black's game instead of your own (unless you know the King's gambit well enough to transpose into that). That's why I prefer 1.b3 and follow up with f4 at the appropriate time.
Most Bird players would be prepared to face From's Gambit, and with accurate play white can hold on to the pawn.
Just as most From players are prepared for the Birds. It comes down to who knows it better, and since it's a specialty for black, chances are that black won't play it unless he/she knows it very well. Since the two arguments can cancel each other out this way, you're still playing into black's game and not your own.
Doesn't really stand up to reason very well.
Assuming the two players are otherwise fairly equally matched, a player on the black side who plays the From against 1.f4 is going to get to wheel it out about twice a year, since f4 is a pretty rare customer, and f4's willing to play into the From rarer still. In addition, all his prep time is going to be spent on e4 and d4, and to a lesser extent Nf3 and c4.
A Bird player is going to spend pretty much all his time with white looking into Bird lines. He'll know which line he'll be using against 1...e5 (KG, accepted, declined), and he'll get to play it about once every eight games or so, according to stats. Add to that the fact that theory says the From is pretty good for white, and you have a fairly reliable recipe for success from that side of the equation.
Why do people choose to play the bird opening (1.f4), I am not saying it is not a valid opening, but I don't understand how one gets to the point they choose to play it all the time. It has suprise value and if you don't know what you are doing against it you can end up in trouble, but after the first couple of times I have seen it, I have no fear of it anymore. Although I have not seen it here mainly on ICC.