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Bird Opening

Moves

White scores

51.7%

About even
Loses moreEvenWins more

49.9% won3.7% drawn46.5% lost

Theory 47.7% · Stockfish −0.2

Every level and clock · 30M games

8
7
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5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
1.f4
Analyze this line move by move
Your levelnot setDrag to yours ↔
<100010001200140016001800200022002500+

Win rate by rating

White’s score gets better as the rating rises.

RatingScore against evenScoreWonGames
46.4%44.2%1.1M
50.3%48.8%1.5M
51.1%49.7%2.5M
51.1%49.6%4.3M
52.0%50.3%6.5M
52.2%50.2%7.1M
52.6%50.4%4.6M
52.9%50.6%2.2M
53.5%49.8%298K

Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.

What does Black play next?

Black's most played reply is 1…⁠d5, the Dutch Variation.

Is the Bird Opening good?

Even for White, across every level and clock.

Everyone51.7
Stockfish47.7

Stockfish at depth 22 · −0.2 for White

Floor 51.7 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

Among the families

34th of 66 families White can choose

Where it wins · rating × clock

<100010001200140016001800200022002500+Every levelUltraBulletBulletBlitzRapidClassical
Best 57.0% · 2000–2199 classicalWorst 38.9% · under 1000 classical

Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.

Average game length

How do you score in your own openings?

Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.

See my openingsSave and drill this line

More Bird Opening lines

Most played first; each line counts its own games.

All 27 Bird Opening lines, ranked

27 variations · ranked by floor

Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

1
Bird Opening: Lasker Variation257K games
54.1%Floor 53.9%
2
Bird Opening: Thomas Gambit2.2K games
55.4%Floor 53.7%
3
Bird Opening: Double Duck Formation99K games
53.2%Floor 52.9%
Bird Opening: Platz Gambit4.2K games
54.0%Floor 52.7%
Bird Opening: Myers Defense43K games
53.0%Floor 52.6%
Bird Opening: Dutch Variation9.1M games
52.4%Floor 52.4%
Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Lasker Variation229K games
52.4%Floor 52.3%
Bird Opening: Schlechter Gambit442K games
52.1%Floor 52.0%
Bird Opening15M games
52.0%Floor 52.0%
Bird Opening: Lasker Gambit69K games
52.0%Floor 51.7%
Bird Opening: Siegener Gambit611 games
54.9%Floor 51.6%
Bird Opening: Sturm Gambit127K games
51.7%Floor 51.5%
Bird Opening: Wagner-Zwitersch Gambit89K games
51.7%Floor 51.4%
Bird Opening: Hobbs Gambit91K games
51.2%Floor 50.9%
Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Bahr Gambit56K games
51.1%Floor 50.8%
Bird Opening: From's Gambit2.2M games
50.2%Floor 50.2%
Bird Opening: Williams-Zilbermints Gambit53K games
50.1%Floor 49.7%
Bird Opening: Horsefly Defense47K games
49.4%Floor 49.0%
Bird Opening: Williams Gambit1.4M games
48.5%Floor 48.4%
Bird Opening: Mujannah29K games
48.5%Floor 48.0%
Bird Opening: Swiss Gambit282 games
52.8%Floor 47.9%
Bird Opening: Hobbs-Zilbermints Gambit7.4K games
48.7%Floor 47.8%
Bird Opening: Dutch Variation, Batavo Gambit201K games
46.8%Floor 46.6%
Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Lipke Variation905 games
49.2%Floor 46.5%
Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Langheld Gambit13K games
45.7%Floor 45.0%
Bird Opening: Batavo-Polish Attack566 games
46.9%Floor 43.5%
Bird Opening: Dutch Variation, Dudweiler Gambit50K games
29.0%Floor 28.7%
Analyze Bird Opening PositionsSee what each move is worth at your rating, move by move

Methodology

Across every level and clock, the Bird Opening family scores 51.7% for White, with a range running from 51.7% to 51.8% around that figure, from 30M rated Lichess games across 27 variations. Win rate, draw rate and loss rate come from games played September 2023 to August 2026.

How the figures are made
Whose games these are
30M rated games played on Lichess (2023-09 to 2026-08). The games are Lichess’s and free for anyone to use. What is ours is the reading of them. Last rebuilt September 2026.
Which games we count
  • Rated games only — nothing casual.
  • Both players within 200 rating points of each other. A mismatch tells you about the gap, not about the opening.
  • At least 2 moves played.
  • A game is filed under White’s rating.
Why every number comes with a range
A number off a few hundred games is a guess. The same number off millions is a fact. The range is what tells them apart, and it is what the lists rank on — so an opening cannot reach the top on a lucky run of forty games. The more games behind a figure, the narrower its range.
What the Floor and Edge at worst are
The Floor is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident: the low end of a figure’s range, not its average. Edge at worst is how far wins run ahead of losses, 90% confident, so above zero, that side wins more than it loses even on a bad day. Each is stated for the rating and clock shown, over the games that reached the position. They are on different scales: a score sits at 50 when the sides are level, an edge at zero.
How much we need before we say anything
An opening page needs 100 games. A figure on it needs 100 games at its rating and clock: short of that the answer reads a wider scope and says so, a table row shows only its count, and a map cell shows a dash. Under 1.0K games a figure is drawn faint, and never leads a list or counts as the best or worst place the line wins. The chaos and trap lists need 500 games overall and 250 games at one rating or clock.