Birds' Opening: Move by Move

As I've gotten older, my tastes in openings have gotten zanier. Perhaps this is a reaction to my youth - in my teens, I thought only openings like the Najdorf, the Gruenfeld, and 1. e4 were "real" openings worth playing! Now I'm much more flexible and less snobbish about such matters - I play the English, the Bogo, the Taimanov/Kan, with occasional dabbles into even quirkier openings. One of those quirky dabbles is the Bird, which Lakdawala does a good job of covering.However, I think it's not possible to discuss this book without discussing Timothy Taylor's book on the Bird as well. The Bird was a quite obscure opening, yet we've had two books on it come out in the past few years! I own both of these books, and they have differences, strengths, and demerits between them. If I had to summarize in a sentence, I would say that Lakdawala's book wins at depth, while Taylor's book wins at width. Lakdawala does a good job of choosing a more narrow spectrum of Birdtastic ways to go, and analyses them well - Taylor gives you an absolute smorgasboard of options and makes you feel enthusiastic about each one!That's not to say that Lakdawala's book only offers two Bird options - he mentions the Stonewall, the Leningrad, and the Classical, and does a good job of providing insightful analysis into these three structures. He differs from Taylor in seeming to have zero faith in the Classical set up with e3, d3, and Be2 - it made me think that perhaps he should have simply skipped that section if he doesn't trust it. Lakdawala also differs from Taylor in some fairly important conclusions - in 1. f4 e5 2. de Nc6!?, Taylor gives 3. Nc3 as the very best move and warns us that 3. Nf3(?!) g5(!) gives Black a Lasker From where he's even somewhat likely to win his pawn back. Lakdawala gives 3. Nf3 as the best move! The evidence is on Lakdawala's side here - after 3...g5, Stockfish 9 gives White an almost winning advantage, whereas after 3. Nc3 d6 Stockfish 9 gives an almost equal game.One fun boon to Taylor's book is that he offers more options - while Lakdawala offers three Bird option against 1...d5 before going into miscellaneous lines, Taylor also offers b3 lines and the Antoshin (with an early c3, Qc2, d3, and e4). Neither of these are incredibly sound (especially the Antoshin, which looks downright shaky in some spots), but it's a fun addition. Lakdawala is much more focused. One concern I had of an omission by Lakdawala was one particular line of the From's - Taylor calls it the "full Mestel", and it looks absolutely critical as an alternative to the old Lasker 4...g5. Taylor gives 10 pages of games and analysis, whereas Lakdawala only gives a footnote!Now to a true demerit to Lakdawala's book - the recommendations against miscellaneous responses lead outside the Bird into Sicilian territory. Taylor, against 1...c5, recommends a structure that stays within the Bird spirit (a clamp formation with Be2, e3, d3, and eventually e4/c3/d4). Lakdawala recommends transposing to the Closed Sicilian. Now, if Lakdawala thinks that's the very strongest option, I understand - however, I play the Bird to escape mainline theory, and the Closed Sicilian is most certainly mainline theory! I really wish Lakdawala found a way to stay within the Bird for all of his recommendations.That said, however, Lakdawala's book is a lovely addition to the theory of an opening that is surprisingly growing in popularity. As an introduction to an interesting opening for players of all strengths, it does a great job.Four of five stars, demerits for non Bird recommendations.

While books on the Bird is rare, when there is one, I snatch right away. The content is good BUT for the life of me please don't make a chess book into a literary pulitzer prize wannabe novel... I'll quote a few examples: "... Black’s e-pawn insolently looks in our direction and makes a neck-slicing gesture by dragging a finger across its throat.", "... with free associative interpretations.", "The bishop, unsatisfied with mere reverence from his followers, now demands outright worship from his g7-brother. The hermetic seal of Black’s defence finally opens a crack, just enough to allow infiltration.", "Sherlock Holmes said that in life-threatening emergencies, we tend to “save the object dearest to our hearts.” In the case of the black king, the “dearest” object happens to be himself. He has little choice but to forgive his h6-sister her trespasses - mainly since she has the power to arbitrarily order his immediate execution if the mood comes upon her.", "Black’s king reminds us of a psychologically tormented victim in an Edgar Allan Poe story.", "“So now you recognize - much too late - the degree to which my power overwhelms yours,” the queen tells her unfortunate b6-rival." and so on and on and on... This book could have been made more concise and clear without the need for metaphors nor literary references. I could see some foreigners buying this book become confused with the colorful comments. I particularly do not like it.EDIT: I added an extra star to credit for the good chess content.

Lakdawala's most recent contribution to Everyman's Move by Move series resurrects Bird's opening, which has been unjustly neglected for decades. The Bird is a Dutch reversed, so if you want to employ both openings in your repertoire you'll find this particularly helpful. I've been through Cyrus' book twice now, and yesterday I won one game and drew another, both against rated opponents (my own rating is around 1750).The analysis is thorough and up to date, meticulously checked by the comps. Unlike the other reviewer who commented here, I don't mind the author's writing style -- it enlivens what otherwise could be the tedious work of labouring through intricate moves and diagrams, and even serves for me as a kind of mnemonic that highlights key moments in the game being presented. If a chessbook can be novelistic, why not?The slightly earlier Tim Taylor book on the Bird, and Henrik Danielsen's very recent online collection of games via Kindle, serve as counterpoint to Lakdawala's book. All three players/authors have a slightly different take on the Bird, so I find that the three complement one another nicely. If you don't like one approach to a particular line of the Bird, you can try another!

IM Lakdawala has out-done himself this time. I play the Bird's Opening myself, and I was always irritated by the lack of material put out on the subject. I own both of IM Timothy Taylor's book on the Bird's, and I also own Henrik Danielsen's ebook aswell, and I can easily say this is the most comprehensive book on the market.I struggled with a few variation of the Bird's and tried to make several of the variations work, reasonably, and I came up with few ideas that seem to make the Classical Bird's opening viable for play. While IM Taylor's book seems to touch on the classical variation just for the sake of taking up space, IM Lakdawala puts down very strong ideas that bring up the classical variation's reputation.As always, IM Lakdawala entertains with his trademark colorful style, and makes evaluations and variation easy to digest.My personal way of playing the Bird's has changed, and I am seeing results in both online play, and in over-the-board tournament settings. I would highly recommend anyone wanting to learn the Bird's pick this book over the others.

Un gran libro para introducirse en la Apertura Bird. Comienza analizando con el Contragambito Fromm (1.f4 e5), considerada la variante más agresiva que tienen las Negras y llega a la conclusión de que no es peligroso para las Blancas. Continúa después analizando las variantes principales (fianchetto con g3, muro de piedra, clásica, etc.) y las variantes más secundarias.Está escrito con un estilo peculiar, que quizá no es del agrado de todos, pero a mí me gusta ya que hace que la lectura no sea nada árida (no se requiere un nivel muy alto de inglés para entenderlo, aunque a veces hay que usar el diccionario para entender alguna expresión rara XD).El formato de preguntas/respuestas va muy bien ya que simula una clase y así te hace pensar en las jugadas más importantes.

Un'apertura inusuale ma giocabile soprattutto ai livelli normali. Un buon libro interessante.

Good, practical and easy to learn. Seems very good indeed for post novices. I would recommend The Dutch Assassin from Simin Williams too.

L'auteur aborde différentes manières de jouer la Bird mais il s'est intéressé plus particulièrement à 1.f4 suivi d'un rapide g3. Les autres systèmes sont vus bien plus rapidement. Les analyses sont assez poussées (plus de 400 pages) donc le livre peut satisfaire même de forts joueurs.

Thank you.