Bird’s Opening (or the Dutch Attack) is a chess opening characterized by the move:
1. f4
Bird’s is a standard flank opening. White’s strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square, offering good attacking potential at the expense of slightly weakening his kingside. Black may challenge White’s plan to control e5 immediately by playing From’s Gambit (1…e5); however, the From’s Gambit is notoriously double-edged and should only be played after significant study.
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings assigns two codes for Bird’s Opening: A02 (1.f4) and A03 (1.f4 d5).
The opening was mentioned by Luis RamÃrez de Lucena in his book Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con Cien Juegos de Partido, published c. 1497. In the mid-nineteenth century the opening was sometimes played by La Bourdonnais and Elijah Williams, among others. The British master Henry Edward Bird first played it in 1855 and continued to do so for the next 40 years. In 1885, the Hereford Times named it after him. In the first half of the 20th century Aron Nimzowitsch and Savielly Tartakower sometimes played 1.f4. In more recent decades, grandmasters who have used the Bird’s with any regularity include Bent Larsen, Andrew Soltis, Lars Karlsson, Mikhail Gurevich, and Henrik Danielsen.
