This guide provides a beginner-friendly, no-nonsense approach to playing the Bird's Opening (1. f4), focusing on controlling the E5 square and developing a strong central pawn structure to gain an early advantage.
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hello everyone and welcome to your known
nonsense beginner guide on how to play
the birds opening with Pawn 2 F4 so
before I get into the theory I want to
talk about why we play F4 in the first
place the point of this move is that
we're controlling the E5 square and that
idea of controlling E5 will continue for
the entire game our next two moves will
almost always be Knight to F3 control
the square even more and also be free
and Bishop to B2 to once again control
that square even more and in the future
because we have the E5 Square so well
defended we will eventually plot this
Knight onto E5 and once we do that that
will cause a lot of problems for black
because we will have an extremely well
defended centralized Knight alright so
what are Black's responses here if black
plays just about anything you will have
one setup that you can play which I will
show you except if they play Pawn to E5
this is the froms Gambit and objectively
it is not the best however if you do not
know what you're doing you can get
checkmated extremely fast hence why I am
showing it first so E5 you are going to
accept the Gambit and the reason it is
so dangerous is that now this diagonal
here is very very weak so black will
most likely go Pawn up to D6 here this
is their best option you're going to
capture they will capture back and
because of both their Queen and their
Bishop potentially coming in you're
going to play Knight to F3 here control
the Square from the queen and black has
two main options here if they go Bishop
to G4 and attack the Knight this is not
a challenging option at all you'll
simply go Pawn up to E3 here get the
queen defending the Knight and after
something like Knight to C6 Bishop to E2
let's say Knight to F6 you can simply
Castle here you'll then go Pawn up to be
free Bishop to B2 and you are up a pawn
here and even though you are a little
cramped black cannot really attack you
and they do not have much to show for
being down a pawn so Bishop to G4 is not
a very strong option here what is much
stronger is G5 this is the Lasker
variation and it looks a bit ridiculous
but the idea here is Pawn up to G4 kick
the Knight away at which point their
Queen will be able to come in with lots
of problems for us so after G5 you are
going to play Pawn up to G free trying
to shut this diagonal down black will
now push up to G4 most likely attacking
our Knight and we're going to move it to
the side on H4 and even though Knights
on the rim are usually Grim in this case
black cannot really punish us and they
are still down a pawn so once again
black has two main options in this
Mainline position the first one is
Bishop to E7 trying to immediately
attack our Knight and we cannot let them
capture because then after we capture
their Queen and get in and that would be
absolutely terrible so you have to back
the night up to G2 now hence why we
played Pawn up to G free and Black's
best option here is to try Pawn to H5
and H4 however here you simply go Pawn
up to D4 the idea is that we are opening
up our Bishop in after H4 we do not want
to capture because once again then their
bishop and their Queen would get in so
you have to play Bishop to F4 here
simply defending the pawn with the
bishop black has to now run out of steam
and they really do not have compensation
for being down a pawn so that's what to
do against Bishop to E7 but their other
main line here is Knight to E7 simply
developing the Knight but their King
side is completely ripped open so
castling on that side is a complete
no-go for them and the movie wants to
play here is D4 and there's a very
specific reason you want to go D4
immediately the idea is that after
Knight to G6 here trying to trade off
the Knight you are going to capture and
after they capture back black now has a
fret here of capturing the pawn because
this Rook here is pinning it so what
you're going to do is Queen up to D3
which is why we played D4 now the pawn
is defended and once again I think black
here runs out of steam you will go Pawn
up to C3 Bishop to G2 you'll rotate this
Knight to the E4 square and while black
does have some long lasting pressure
from the Pawn on G4 as well as the open
H file I do not think they have full
compensation for the pawn and you have
very good chances in this position so
that is how to handle Pawn up to E5 the
froms Gambit make sure you know that but
now let's get into their other lines and
here black can play about a million
different things they can go D5 and go C5
C5
um Knight to F6 Knight to C6 D6 E6 the
point here is that no matter what they
play unless it is Pawn to E5 you can
play in pretty much the exact same way
so let's look at Pawn up to D5 as an
example the first move you're going to
want to make is Knight to F3 controlling
the square and developing your knight
then after black plays their move you'll
then go Pawn up to be free remember
those ideas that I mentioned in the
beginning you can see all of them
happening right now you will go Bishop
to B2 and control the E5 Square as much
as you can so black will now go Knight
to C6 here you go Bishop to B2 and the
good thing about controlling the E5
Square so much is that pawn up to E5 as
a break for black is very difficult to
accomplish and that is a very good thing
for us because if black can get E5 in
successfully chances are that is going
to be very bad news for us so most
likely black will just continue
developing normally Knight to F6 here
and you now go Pawn up to E3 opening up
the bishop into Bishop wants to go to B5
the reason is to trade off for this
Knight here because then E5 will no
longer be contested and once again black
has a lot of different things they can
play here I'll look at Pawn to E6 as an
example but once again all these ideas
that I'm showing are a kind of setup
that you'll play in pretty much every
single time here so after Pawn up to E6
or whatever move they play you want to
go Bishop to B5 attack the Knight and
hopefully trade it off if black simply
provokes you with Pawn to A6 this is a
very bad move because you're going to
capture this Knight anyways and after
captures captures in some openings
having these doubled C pawns can be a
good thing but this is not one of them
black simply does not really have any
reason to have the Double C pawns and
after simply castles here you just have
a nice Advantage instead what is
probably best for them is is to try
Bishop to D7 and undo the pin and
capture back with the bishop when we do
eventually capture and by the way we
will always capture this Knight or some
piece sooner or later around this area
so here you're simply going to Castle
let's say black develops Bishop to E7
preparing to Castle you want to go D
free here the idea is to rotate this
Knight to D2 and potentially this Knight
when it goes to E5 can come to F3 and
then both Knights can be defending the
E5 square and you will have just a great
time so black would most likely Castle
here now at Knight to D2 now black will
go A6 and in this position now we're
going to capture because we are provoked
they will capture back and now we plot
the Knight into the center Knight to E5
here attacking the bishop and Black's
best move here is like Bishop back to EA
8 this is extremely inhuman no person
would ever play that move instead the
most common move here is Queen to C7
defending the bishop at which point you
have a few options you can play Knight
d2f3 like I mentioned earlier just
keeping this Knight defendant in Center
as much as possible you can also try
Queen to F free but the most promising
line here is likely Rook up to F3 the
idea is to try and Rook lift this Rook
to either G free or H3 and then get your
queen into the attack and black is going
to have a little bit trouble defending
on that side because our pawns and their
pawns have kind of closed off their
pieces from seeing that side for example
if Black Goes Knight back to D7 which is
the second most common move simply
attack the Knight and preparing Pawn to
F6 to try and really get that square we
now go Rook to G free and if Black Goes
F6 now then Queen to G4 and you're
winning they're about 6 60 games in its
position simply Queen takes on G7 is too
strong and black cannot handle it and
you are completely winning his position
after Rook 2 of 7 Knight captures King
captures Queen captures on G7 you are
completely winning there so that can
just show you how dangerous this can get
for black if they are not very very
careful here their best move here is
probably like D4 to try and open up
their Bishop to see The Rook but simply
E4 here and even though your Bishop is
now blocked out which is not very good
blacks pieces as well are also blocked
out this bishop is staring at this Pawn
this Knight staring at the pawn this
bishop is not doing much back here and
you're playing this position is to once
again to try and instigate on the king
side move the Rook to either G3 or H3
try and move your queen in and I think
your chances in position are absolutely
fantastic alright thank you so much for
watching that was your no-nonsense
beginner guide on how to play the birds
opening I hope you have a great day and
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