I have completed a study of the first six moves of Bird's Opening -
lichess.org/study/vsCYq1If/HxRM8IQq - in case there is an interest. This study is only for club players, as their moves can be very different from Master level players.
I have only worked on the first six moves for a couple of reasons. One is that it is very easy to learn and remember. Also, club players have basically no prep against the opening, so more important than learning long lines that one will never see is to understand the ideas behind different setups.
I will look of the most commonly seen 33 positions that result from these short lines and over time provide continuations for each.
If you are a club player and want to learn Bird's Opening then this may be the only place (I have looked through four books on the opening and none of them address the most commonly played 1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 - I have found only one YouTube video that mentions it!).
@GLSmyth said in #1:
> This study is only for club players, as their moves can be very different from Master level players.
Never have quite understood what a comment like this is supposed to mean (so you're only analyzing crappy moves?).
I look at the moves that the opponents make, as determined by the Lichess database for players in the 1600-2000 range in Rapid, Classical and Correspondence time controls.
For instance, after 1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 what should White be expecting to see from Black? If you look in any book they will cover the move 2... g6 from Black. This makes sense because most books are not focused on helping the club player. You can learn every line that flows from 2... g6, but if you are a club player there are six other moves that you will see played considerably more often. The most common move the club player should be prepared to see is Nc6 (c5, Nf6, Bf5, e6 and Bg4 are also possibilities, albeit less frequently played). I cover all of these moves.
I used this same idea in my Chessable course The Caro-Kann for Club Players (free). In this study I also look at the moves White should make partially determined by Stockfish 15, but I also weigh heavily on the moves that actually work for club players. I look at the win rate for each move and take that into consideration.
So yes, sometimes Black will make a crappy move, and if it is a common error then the study will point it out, and will show how to best take advantage of that mistake. In all there are close to 100 lines in the study, but due to transpositions it gets narrowed down to 58 lines. About half of them follow 1. f4 d5, which is what one will commonly see, and there is commonality as to how to set the pieces up for play. This may turn into a Chessable course (free) at some point in the future, but I have a lot more work to do before considering that.
So the study as it stands now is just a starting point. If there is interest I'll just keep it public as I continue working on it so that everyone can learn.
I only have a question.
Why?
Its not a good opening. Its not worth your time.
The only thing you need to learn about this is the falkbeer countergambit.
@MrPushwood I mean yeah if someone opens the game with the Birds opening I immediately write it off as studying crappy moves
There is really no point in studying this opening from the white perspective, because you shouldn't play it from the white side. Why would you want to fight for equality when you can fight for a win lol
You probably don't need to study it from the black side either because you can afford to make a couple mistakes that would probably take white out of book and still have equality
@Alientcp said in #4:
> I only have a question.
> Why?
> Its not a good opening. Its not worth your time.
If it is not a good opening then why, of the 31 games you have played against it, have you won 13 and lost 16? (g)
The only moves White has with better winning chances than 1. f4 are 1. c4 and 1. Nf3, so there is something there.
Interesting that when I initially asked for opinions on the opening and requested specifics on why one thought it was a good or bad opening -
lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/birds-opening - I got a very different set of responses. Of course, here no reasons have been given.
Okay, no problem, if there is no interest then I will make it private.
@Alientcp said in #4:
> I only have a question.
> Why?
> Its not a good opening. Its not worth your time.
> The only thing you need to learn about this is the falkbeer countergambit.
The falkbeer counter gambit is in the Kings Gambit I believe...
If you mean 1.f4 e5 its called the From gambit
@NickUK1969 said in #8:
> The falkbeer counter gambit is in the Kings Gambit I believe...
> If you mean 1.f4 e5 its called the From gambit
It does transpose most of the times.
@Alientcp said in #9:
> It does transpose most of the times.
You can play the line 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 g5!?
and things get very spicey....great for people who like chaos
