A02

Bird Opening

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Overview

Bird Opening is one of the foundational chess openings, sitting at the root of an entire branch of theory under ECO code Flank Openings in the A02 group.

The Flank Openings group covers flank openings — systems that delay the central pawn break and instead develop pieces and pawns on the wings.

It begins with 1 ply and takes 1. f4 to reach the canonical position.

It is the root of 10 named variations, with Batavo-Polish Attack, Double Duck Formation, Dutch Variation, and others among the most studied.

Together the deeper variations number 26 across the full subtree.

Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.

ECO code: A02
Group: Flank Openings (A)
Plies: 1
Direct variations: 10
Total in subtree: 26

This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.

Statistics from Lichess

28,641,334 games · White 49.7% / Draw 4.6% / Black 45.7%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
d5	10,750,484
c5	3,217,739
e5	2,946,644
e6	2,762,079
Nf6	1,948,150
d6	1,314,091
g6	1,229,831
c6	1,229,173

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:33:34

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Variations (10)

Show all 26 sub-variations (full subtree)