Bird Opening
A02 1. f4
Black scores 45.7% here across 1,195 club games — but the 5.9% who answer Nc6 score 34.3%, 11 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 1,195 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 45.7% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d5 | 517 | 43.3% | 43.6% | holds up |
| e6 | 176 | 14.7% | 44.9% | holds up |
| e5 | 99 | 8.3% | 59.6% | holds up |
| c5 | 84 | 7.0% | 51.2% | holds up |
| Nf6 | 78 | 6.5% | 50.0% | holds up |
| Nc6 | 70 | 5.9% | 34.3% | below the line |
| b6 | 39 | 3.3% | 41.0% | below the line |
| f5 | 38 | 3.2% | 34.2% | below the line |
| d6 | 33 | 2.8% | 48.5% | holds up |
| g6 | 31 | 2.6% | 54.8% | holds up |
"Below the line" means the reply scores at least three points worse than the position does overall. Replies played fewer than 25 times are left out: the sample is too small to read.
Is this costing you anything?
A table of averages cannot tell you whether you go wrong here — only your own games can. Opening Leak Lab reads your Chess.com or Lichess archive, finds the decisions you repeat, and checks each one against this book and a bundled Stockfish.