Birds Opening Two Hanging Pawns

Bird's Opening victories often follow a kingside attack. The move 1.f4 is a good start. Tim Steiner played a nice Bird's Opening against me in 1993 which looked like a Dutch Defence Classical in reverse. Black double rooks on the open d-file. I made threats in the center and on the queenside. White planted one pawn on f6. If he had played 25.f5, the combined f-pawn threats and the open diagonal to h6 would have given White winning chances. That missed opportunity meant Black stood better. There's an old saying about killing two birds with one stone. My final move threatened to kill two pawns with one queen. That was enough for my Bird buddy Tim Steiner.

Steiner (1803) - Sawyer (2003), corr APCT Q-139, 1993 begins 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.Be2 Bg7 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 b6 [The main line 6...c5 7.Nc3 d4 (7...Nc6 8.Ne5=) 8.Ne4 Qb6 9.Nxf6+ exf6 10.e4 f5=] 7.Nc3 Bb7 8.Qe1 c5 9.Bd1 Nc6 10.e4 dxe4 [10...d4 11.Nb1 Ne8=] 11.dxe4 Nd4 12.e5 Nd5 13.Nxd5 Qxd5 14.c3 Nf5 15.Bc2 e6 16.Qf2 Rad8 17.Re1 Qc6 18.Nd2 Rd7 19.Ne4 Rfd8 20.a4 Ba6?! [20...a5!=] 21.g4 Ne7 22.Nf6+ Bxf6 23.exf6 Nc8 24.Be4 Qc7 25.Be3? [25.f5! Nd6 26.fxe6 Nxe4 27.exd7 Bb7 28.Bh6+/=] 25...Bb7 26.Bf3 Bxf3 27.Qxf3 Nd6 28.b4 cxb4 29.cxb4

29...Qc3! [Attacks f6 and b4.] 0-1

My new book of 200 diagrams shows 200 final moves Fabiano Caruana played to win in Caruana Chess: Winning Moves by Fabiano Caruana (compiled by Tim Sawyer)


Sets: Chess Games 1.e4 Series and Chess Games 1.d4 Series
Copyright 2011-2018 / Author Page / sawyerte@yahoo.com
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