To me, the Bird says, "Woops! I grabbed the wrong pawn by mistake. Is it too late to say 'J'adoube?'"
Ah, the Bird is quite playable. A bit aggressive for my taste, but certainly playable. The Dutch is quite respectable for black, how can it not be at least playable as white?
To me, the Bird says, "Woops! I grabbed the wrong pawn by mistake. Is it too late to say 'J'adoube?'"
Ah, the Bird is quite playable. A bit aggressive for my taste, but certainly playable. The Dutch is quite respectable for black, how can it not be at least playable as white?
The Bird doesn't even have to be aggressive, you can also play in a positional manner in that opening
I quite like the dutch for black, but I wouldn't play the bird except for maybe an occasional surprise weapon. The reason is that I really don't think that white can put his extra tempo to use in the dutch positions, which are more of a counter-attacking nature than an attacking nature, and are thus more suitable to play as black. I hope this makes sense, and there are other examples of it as well. It is not just fashion that determines why the KID is more respectable than the KIA, the Semi-Slav more than the Colle, and of course the Pirc and French more than 1.e3 and 1.d3. With his first move, white should strive to play for greater control of the centre or a lead in development. If he decides to play a "black" set-up, like the KIA or bird, then he is not putting a lot of pressure on black from the beginning of the game and is allowing him to develop comfortably. That is why I don't think the extra move matters much when white is playing as black does. It's not like black is going to play a razor sharp opening like the Yugoslav attack reversed against 1.c4 if he knows what he is doing.
Just to point out the obvious, the Bird is a lot different from the Dutch if black does not play ...d5
Right?
Just to point out the obvious, the Bird is a lot different from the Dutch if black does not play ...d5
Right?
Right. Black can hope for a transposition to the Grand Prix with 1...c5, try the dangerous but probably dubious From's gambit with 1...e5, or opt for some other interesting plans. One line that looks interesting is 1...d6, preparing a quick ...e5. Compare this to the line 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3 which is considered by most dutch guru's to be quite dangerous for black.
If 1. e4 is met by c5 (the Sicilian), yes - you can try 2. d4 (the Smith-Morra) which is dynamic... But, I recommend 2. b4 (a wing gambit) for real untred waters and a fun game -- if you wanna sac a pawn.
I don't think you need to play these gambits in order to play aggressively against the Sicilian.
In the main lines, white obtains an attack anyways + in those gambit lines, if black knows some theory or has home analysis on them, white will get crushed in the endgame. Yea black is forced to defend for a while into perhaps the late middlegame but it is do-able.
I really think white players who play 1.e4 looking for an aggressive game should look into the Open Sicilian. The English Attack Setup against the d6 Sicilians followed by a pawn storm is pretty aggressive. Ive heard that there is a video on this site that explains how to use this setup against various Sicilians.