This website has alot of good stuff on the Bird's  from a master that has played 1. f4 all his life.
http://www.geocities.com/drawyah/FromGD.txt

I'm not really looking for a book though I'm just wondering about a specific line (as in my other post):

I have always wondered in this particular line of the bird's:
1. f4 e5. 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. Nf3 g5 5. d4 g4 6. Nd5 Bxe5 7. dxe5 Qxd1+ 8. Kxd1 Nc6 9. Bf4

I think white is now a little better. He holds the extra pawn for the moment he has the bishop pair ... the loss of castling rights seems negligable with Queens off.

Yet theory here continues not with 9. Bf4 but with either 9. Bg5 or 9. Nc3 Why? 9. Bg5 just provides but 9... Nxe5 giving black a nice equal game.  9. Nc3 Be6 10. Bf4 now allows black 0-0-0 + gaining a precious tempo. Does anyone have access to some master games with 9. Bf4? Or can you provide some analysis to this? I think white may stand better there. The only games I have been able to find with this line are from Bird himself in the 1800s.

Maybe I´m just repeating some information but here are some Froms Gambit sources from my german point of view:

- Gambit 59 by Stefan Bücker (~60pages?, german language, Nürnberg 1984) was a kind of early german SOS . The titel is about 1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 e5 3.b4 [Larsen-Olafsson,Hoogovens 1959, compare chesscafe.com "Over the horizons" (feb+mar+apr08)], other chapters are about 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.Qb3 against the French, 3.exf5 e4 4.Ng1 against the Latvian, 3.Bg5 Bxe4 4.d5 against the Owen, Caro-Kann Phantasy, etc. 
One chapter is about the Neo-From concentrating on 2...Nc6 3.Nf3 g5 4.d4 g4 5.Ng5 d6 6.exd6 Qxd6.

- Bird´s Opening A02 by Viktor Ivanov (39pages,  informator-style, Russian Chess House 2003) , deals with 1...f5, 1...b5, 1...g6, 1...c5, 1...Nf6 and mainly (22p.) with the From. Contains some not-well-known games from Russia. Thin but cheap (€5), obviously still on-stock at www.niggemann.com.

- I don´t know if the first edition (88pages,1963) of Froms Gambit by Dr.Georg Deppe has different analysis than the second one (109pages, 1979), but a search for "froms" at www.zvab.com leads to offers of both editions.

- Regarding Christoph63´s suggestion of Bird-Eröffnung 1.f2-f4 by Rolf Schwarz (156pages, 1960/reprinted 1996) I would like to stress that ~30% of the book is about 1...e5.

- Dragonslayer mentioned Das Froms-Gambit by Helmut Warzecha. There's not much original analysis, but it´s a good compilation of most earlier sources, a helpful overview.

- Das Schacharchiv (published) by Kurt Rattmann was maybe the most important german-language opening source in the 1980s, delivered monthly(?) in loose-leaf edition. Some of the last editions (~1988?) were bound into soft-cover books with ~200pages and one of these (no. 46?, 47? 48?) had a ~50page analysis by Lev Gutman on the Froms, concentrating on 2...d6 3.exd6 Bf5?! It´s Gutman-style, comparable with his book on the Fajarowicz... - Maybe I´ll succeed to get more detailed information about this.

* * *

Regarding the Neo-From or Schlechter Variation 2...Nc6 it´s certainly interesting to look at 1.f4 Nc6!?, my personal favourite. 
+ it avoids 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 Nc6 3.Nc3, instead 1.f4 Nc6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Bg4 is just positional chaos
+ if White plays 1.f4 Nc6 2.Nf3 in a too self-confident way, Black can still sidestep the From with 2...d5 or 2...Nf6
+ after 1.f4 Nc6 White might play other/inferior moves than 2.Nf3: 2.e4 d5!, 2.g3/e3/b3 e5!, 2.d4 e5! (3.d5 exf4!!, 3.dxe5 f6, 3.e3 exf4 4.exf4 d5)
- Black must accept to play a Nc6 defence against the King´s Gambit after 1.f4 Nc6 2.Nf3 e5 3.e4. Now 3...exf4, 3...Bc5, 3...f5 are all sharp, less explored, less known and at least "playable".

tracke 

Black_Widow wrote on 04/27/08 at 19:14:24:


First I posted the game with the Neo-From on the dangerous weapons - flank openings thread. I appreciate that it should be on this thread.

I played 1.f4 in the Champions League 6 times and no opponent played 1. e5.

I did not make myself clear. As I play King's Gambit from both sides of the board I am not worried when I am black if white transposes to the king's Gambit.

As far as the Neo-From is concerned

1.f4 e5 Nc6 2. Nf3 g5 is very dangerous. See the game on the other thread.

While we are talking about From's Gambit I would like to mention several things.

First Tim Harding annotated one of my games with the Neo-From Gambit in Chess Mail magazine. I need to add some more analysis. Then I will post it to this site.  (It is on his Correspondence Chess CDs.)

The Neo-From is 1.f4 e5 2.fxe Nc6.   Timothy Taylor mentions this line in his book on Bird's Opening. He suggests 3. Nc3 d6 4.exd Bxd6 5.Nf3
but only considers 5...g5 for black. According to my analysis black should play 5...Nf6 

James, I consider your book on the Pirc to be what one of my dinki-di Aussie mates would say about Sachin Tendulkar "<expletive deleted> magic". 

A really good book on From's Gambit has yet to be written. Maybe you should think about writing one. I can answer f4 with e5 because I love playing the King's Gambit from either side of the board in correspondence.

Don't trust the website mentioned by Beetlejuice. The guy who used to run it, is out of business.
As for obtaining Ekebjerg's book it seems very difficult. I think only a few hundred were printed.
You can borrow it from Danish Public Libraries, which is what I did, but I guess Copenhagen is a not around the corner 
It is divided into 3 pamphlets and is very difficult to navigate. The sparse words are in Danish and many variations end without any comment or evaluation.
The webshop of the Danish Chess Federation (Dansk Skaksalg) - www.skaksalg.dk used to have a few copies, but like Beetlejuice mentioned it is not to be found on the website. You can try and contact the daily manager IM Steffen Pedersen: sales@skaksalg.dk

Since From was Danish, there was also published a small biography on him: "Skakspilleren Severin From 1828-95" (The Chessplayer Severin From) by Claus Olsen.
Predictably, it is equally hard to come by. Claus Olsen used to sell them at the Copenhagen Open for a token amount.
As for German books, there is also one by Helmut Warzecha: "Das Froms Gambit" Reinhold Dreier Verlag Ludwigshafen 1993. Not very trustworthy but at least a better effort than Eric Schiller's from 1992.

It looks like the web-site says, it still has to be printed. But it should be a 200 page book. For sure there will be demand for such a book, since there is no complete overview of current From gambit theory. Although Taylor clarified some lines. If the book can be oredered, I am also interested.

Beetlejuice wrote on 04/17/08 at 22:26:03:


Maybe it's related to this place: http://www.chess-import.dk/forlag/ ?

Tracke, Christoph, or anyone else - do you also know of Ove Ekebjaerg's (sometimes spelled Ekebjerg!) recent work on the From Gambit? Very few references to it turn up on a google search, and I wonder whether hardly any copies were printed...? Thanks!