Bird Opening: Horsefly Defense
1. f4 Nh6
The Bird Opening: Horsefly Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A02, reached after 1. f4 Nh6. It is a line of the Bird Opening. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 228 times by this move order. White won 50%, 7% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 2. Nf3 (65% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 e6 4. e4 Be7)
- ECO
- A02
- Moves
- 2 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppppppp/7n/8/5P2/8/PPPPP1PP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 2- PGN
1. f4 Nh6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 23 | |
| 1500-1999 | 87 | |
| 2000+ | 118 | |
| All | 228 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2. Nf3 | 149 (65%) | |
| 2. e4 | 37 (16%) | |
| 2. e3 | 11 (5%) | |
| 2. d4 | 10 (4%) | |
| 2. b3 | 6 (3%) | |
| 2. g3 | 6 (3%) | |
| 2. h3 | 4 (2%) | |
| 2. Nc3 | 2 (1%) |
Master games
333 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 14%, Black 46%). The strongest:
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2841) – GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (2603) 1-0 · 1st 3-0 Thu 2nd Jul 2026 · 2026-07-02
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2758) – GM Vladislav Kovalev (2648) 0-1 · European Online CC PlayC · 2021-03-29
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2793) – GM Matej Sebenik (2551) 1/2-1/2 · PRO League Group Stage · 2018-02-07
- GM Raven Sturt (2459) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2837) 0-1 · Titled Tue 10th Jun Early · 2025-06-10
- GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2755) – GM Kayden Troff (2490) 1-0 · Titled Tue 3rd Sep Late · 2024-09-03
Search all games of the Bird Opening: Horsefly Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- FM kirill_kopyonkin (2680) – AnonymousBrownGuy (2736) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- ericlgame (2466) – songsololevel (2579) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- Tarmiel_LSM (2394) – Artem9630 (2616) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Bird Opening 1. f4
More Bird Opening lines (all)
- Bird Opening: Batavo-Polish Attack A02
- Bird Opening: Double Duck Formation A02
- Bird Opening: From's Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Bahr Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Langheld Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Lasker Variation A02
- Bird Opening: From's Gambit, Lipke Variation A02
- Bird Opening: Hobbs Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: Hobbs-Zilbermints Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: Lasker Gambit A02
- Bird Opening: Mujannah A02
- Bird Opening: Myers Defense A02
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.