A02 Bird's Opening (1.f4 e5 2.d3 Nc6)

The game below was played in round three of a third division, group 4 team match between HangSK and SalSK 3 almost 12 years ago. I am not sure what possessed me to play the opening I used in this game because I had not used anything like this before nor have I ever bothered with this since then. When I looked for other opening variations for the game notation below, I did find some that seemed interesting and I might try them if given the chance. I played on board 4 for SalSK 3 in this match that was played on five boards. I think we were clearly outrated on every board except for board 5 where we did manage to take our only win in the match. On the four other boards we lost, so the final result 4-1 for the home team was quite grim from our point of view.

Trying to teach chess to kids that are not interested in the game becomes more and more annoying as time goes by. It seems to me that kids today are more disrespectful to adults than they were back when I was a kid. I know this is too much of a generalization, because some children actually do behave well and respect the authority of adults. Of course respect is earned and should not be given too easily. Still it would make my job a lot easier if they would behave well and I would only need to concentrate on teaching chess and not on how to behave. Luckily the groups change from time to time, so that maybe the next group is a bit more easily handled than the current group.

[Event "Sarjapeli"] [Site "?"] [Date "2003.11.15"] [Round "?"] [White "Österlund, Magnus"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A02"] [WhiteElo "1806"] [BlackElo "1564"] [Annotator "Tactical Analysis 2.10 (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "2003.02.15"] 1. f4 e5 {A02 Bird Opening: From's Gambit} 2. d3 Nc6 {A02 Bird's Opening} 3. Nf3 exf4 4. Bxf4 Nf6 (4... d5 5. g3 Bd6 6. Qd2 Nf6 7. Bg2 O-O 8. O-O Re8 9. e3 Bg4 10. Nc3 Qd7 11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. Rae1 Re7 13. Qf2 Bxf3 14. Qxf3 Ne5 15. Qf4 c6 16. Ne2 Nfd7 17. Nd4 g6 18. Qh6 f6 19. Qf4 {Stoyanov,S (2117)-Orev,P (2222) Sofia 2009 0-1 (49)}) (4... Bc5 5. d4 Bb4+ 6. c3 Be7 7. e4 d6 8. Bc4 Nf6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. O-O d5 11. Bd3 dxe4 12. Nxe4 Nd5 13. Bd2 f5 14. Neg5 h6 15. Nh3 Be6 16. Qe2 Bf7 17. Bxf5 Bf6 18. Qd3 Nce7 19. Bh7+ {Barrera Martin,N (1558) -Concepcion Villanueva,D (1769) Gran Canaria 2017 1-0 (37)}) 5. e4 d6 $2 { 0.76/23} (5... d5 $17 {-1.02/23} 6. Qe2 Be6) 6. Be2 {0.00/25} (6. c4 $16 { 0.76/23}) 6... Be7 $146 {1.02/21} (6... d5 $11 {0.00/25}) (6... Bg4 7. O-O (7. c3 Nh5 8. Be3 Bxf3 9. Bxf3 Nf6 10. d4 Qd7 11. Nd2 h5 12. h3 O-O-O 13. Qc2 Kb8 14. O-O-O g6 15. Kb1 Bg7 16. Qa4 Ne7 17. Qb3 Ne8 18. Qxf7 Rf8 19. Qb3 c6 20. Rhf1 Nc7 21. Nc4 Nc8 {Gligorijevic,P (1568)-Petrovic,M (1701) Kragujevac 2016 1/2-1/2 (35)}) 7... Qd7 8. e5 dxe5 9. Bxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Qd4+ 11. Kh1 Be6 12. Nc4 O-O-O 13. Nbd2 h5 14. Nf3 Qd7 15. Nce5 Qe8 16. Ng5 Bd6 17. Nxe6 Qxe6 18. Nc4 Kb8 19. Nxd6 Qxd6 20. Qe1 Rde8 21. Qf2 {Sindler,J-Graczyk,D (1839) Gori Tarnowskie 2007 0-1 (46)}) (6... Bd7 7. O-O Qe7 8. Nc3 O-O-O 9. a3 h5 10. h4 Ng4 11. Nd5 Qe8 12. b4 Be6 13. c4 f5 14. b5 Nb8 15. Bg5 Rd7 16. Nd2 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Qe5 18. Nf3 Qg3 19. Qc1 Ne5 20. Nxe5 dxe5 21. Rxf5 {Priadun,R (2032) -Lashkov,A (1815) Abaza 2011 1-0 (54)}) 7. O-O {0.22/25} (7. c4 $16 {1.02/21}) 7... Bg4 {1.08/25} (7... d5 $11 {0.22/25}) 8. Nc3 {0.51/24} (8. c3 $16 {1.08/25 }) 8... Qd7 {1.48/24} (8... O-O $14 {0.51/24}) 9. a3 {0.59/22} (9. d4 $16 { 1.48/24}) 9... O-O-O {1.46/23} (9... O-O $14 {0.59/22}) 10. b4 {0.68/25} (10. h3 $16 {1.46/23} Be6 11. Qe1) 10... h6 {1.86/22} ({Better is} 10... d5 $14 { 0.68/25}) 11. b5 {1.08/27} (11. h3 $18 {1.86/22}) 11... Nb8 $2 {3.23/21} (11... Bxf3 $16 {1.08/27 is a better defense.} 12. Bxf3 Nd4) 12. a4 {1.90/23} (12. Be3 $142 {3.23/21}) 12... g5 {2.88/21} (12... d5 {1.90/23 was necessary.}) 13. Be3 b6 $2 {6.48/22} (13... d5 {2.22/26} 14. e5 (14. Bxa7 dxe4 15. Nxe4 b6 $16) 14... Nh5 15. Bxa7 Nf4) 14. a5 $18 {White is clearly winning.} Rdg8 15. axb6 axb6 16. Ra8 Bxf3 17. Bxf3 g4 18. Qa1 {Threatening mate with Qa6+.} Qe6 19. Be2 g3 20. h3 h5 {[#]} 21. Bxb6 $1 {Qa7 would kill now.} Kd7 (21... cxb6 22. Qa6+) 22. Qa7 Rc8 {[#]} 23. Rxb8 $1 d5 (23... Rxb8 24. Qxc7+) 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Bd4 Ke8 26. Bxf6 Bxf6 27. Nxd5 Be5 28. Bxh5 {Accuracy: White = 28%, Black = 8%.} 1-0