Bird Opening: Williams Gambit (3… Nf6 4. Qe2)

1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qe2

Bird Opening: Williams Gambit after 1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qe2 87654321abcdefgh

The Bird Opening: Williams Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO A03, reached after 1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qe2. It is a line of the Bird Opening. Black is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 18 times by this move order. White won 56%, 0% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 4… Bf5 (44% of games).

Engine evaluation: −1.39 (Stockfish, depth 30; best line 4… Bf5 5. Qb5+ Bd7 6. Qe2 Bg4 7. Qe3)

ECO
A03
Moves
7 plies
FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/5n2/8/4pP2/2N5/PPPPQ1PP/R1B1KBNR b KQkq - 3 4
PGN
1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qe2

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-1499667%33%
1500-19991250%50%
All1856%44%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
4… Bf58 (44%)63%38%
4… Bg46 (33%)67%33%
4… Bd71 (6%)100%
4… b61 (6%)100%
4… Nc61 (6%)100%
4… Qd41 (6%)100%

Highest-rated Lichess games

Comes from

Bird Opening: Williams Gambit (1… d5 2. e4) 1. f4 d5 2. e4

More Bird Opening lines (all)

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.