Quote:

The reason I played 6.Bd3 was to avoid a queen trade after fxe3, which is nonsense since the queen trade favours White after eg 6.Na3 dxe3 7.dxe3.
I like 6.Na3 and 7.Nc4 keeping options for the bishop, thanks!
Still, even after something like 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.Na3 g6 8.Nc4 Bg7 9.Nce5 I think White's position is not unpleasant. This could be compared to 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.a3 Bb7 4.d5 f5 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.g3 Na6 7.Bg2 Nc5 8.Nf3?! Nce4 when White has problems with the centre according to Odessky.

I listened to what Taylor said for a long time about b3. To make a long story short, he gives it a thumbs down.  What else could I do, an innocent player beginning to learn 1. f4, but to dismiss it?  So I began to work on his suggestion, the Classical Defense reversed.  But I found that the positions were, well...not as aggressive as I really liked.  I kept pushing, pushing, but the bishop at c1 nagged at me a lot.   
A lot of the early Bird players used the bishop on b2.  It helps with the fight of e5, but even more, it helps penetrate into g7 and h8.   
One theme of the Bird is the kingside pawn pushes, and this bishop helps support an attack on the enemy king.
I recently had a friend who played me correspondence chess, and I played 1. f4 / 2. b3.  He played an early ...d5-d4, saying he believed this was a good reason to deter him from exploring 2. b3 in the Bird.  I told him that I felt the early pawn push played into my hands, since Black is spending a tempo on a push when he could be developing his pieces.  Later, I redeployed my  bishop back to c1, when the timing was right.   
My advice - try it out.  Many of the original Bird players played b3 and Bb2...and Soltis wrote a book on it that is pretty nice.

thibdb13 wrote on 01/21/10 at 07:41:22:


I actually beat a little higher rated (1890) opponent with a b3-bird and it was my first slow game with 1.f4.

1. f4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 b6 4. b3 Bb7 5. Bb2 Bb4 6. a3 Be7 7. c4 O-O 8. Nc3 d6 9. Qc2 Nbd7 10. f5 Nc5 11. fxe6 fxe6 12. b4 Nce4 13. Bd3 Nxc3 14. Bxc3 Bxf3 15. gxf3 e5 16. Rg1 Qe8 17. Rg3 c5 18. Ke2 Qh5 19. Rag1 Rf7 20. Bf5 e4 21. Bxe4 Nxe4 22. Qxe4 Rd8 23. Rxg7+ Rxg7 24. Rxg7+ Kf8 25. Qxe7# 1-0

Black was somewhat passive in the beginning, but I think I would've been ok even if he had played d5 and c5. Of course, there were some mistakes by black but my point is that the opening worked here.  I don't know what Taylor says.

nyoke wrote on 03/04/10 at 08:41:48:


5 games 1.e4 and one 1.b4 in the ICCF Champions League, so the answer is no.

MNB, any further developments in this interesting line ?

Kamsky-Sjugirov
9th Aeroflot Open A
Moscow RUS (1), 09.02.2010
1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.0–0 0–0 6.d3 c5 7.Qe1 d4 8.Na3 Nc6 9.Bd2 Nd5 10.c3 e5 11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.fxe5 Bxe5 13.Nc2 Be6 14.c4 Ne7 15.b4 cxb4 16.Nxb4 Qd7 17.Bf4 Bg7 18.Rf2 h6 19.Rb1 Rac8 20.a4 Rfe8 21.a5 Rc5 22.Qc1 g5 23.Bd2 Rxa5 24.Bxb7 Re5 25.Bh1 Bg4 26.c5 a5 27.Na6 Nd5 28.c6 Qd6 29.Bxd5 Rxd5 30.Rb7 Be6 31.Nc7 Rc5 32.Qb1 Rf8 33.Nxe6 Qxe6 34.c7 Rc8 35.Rb8 R5xc7 36.Bxa5 ½–½

nyoke wrote on 01/22/10 at 10:01:47:


True. I like to play 3.g3 here, compared to 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 g6, the extra tempo b3 is useful.
Soltis recommends 3.h3, but I don't see the extra b3 as helpful there.
I admit that more often I enter this Bird via 1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 and a later f4. In that case, 2...Bg4 3.f3 is nice.