Bird Opening: Williams Gambit (1… d5 2. e4)
1. f4 d5 2. e4
The Bird Opening: Williams Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO A03, reached after 1. f4 d5 2. e4. It is a line of the Bird Opening. Black is to move. 2 named lines continue from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 542 times by this move order. White won 41%, 4% were drawn and Black won 55%. The most popular continuation is 2… dxe4 (65% of games).
Engine evaluation: −1.45 (Stockfish, depth 38; best line 2… dxe4 3. d3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bf5 5. Nge2)
- ECO
- A03
- Moves
- 3 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/ppp1pppp/8/3p4/4PP2/8/PPPP2PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 2- PGN
1. f4 d5 2. e4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 259 | |
| 1500-1999 | 264 | |
| 2000+ | 19 | |
| All | 542 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2… dxe4 | 354 (65%) | |
| 2… d4 | 58 (11%) | |
| 2… c6 | 27 (5%) | |
| 2… e6 | 26 (5%) | |
| 2… Nf6 | 25 (5%) | |
| 2… c5 | 16 (3%) | |
| 2… Nc6 | 13 (2%) | |
| 2… e5 | 10 (2%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- IM KamranShirazi (2415) – albertogs (2442) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Fhugmug (2365) – Banjan (2325) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 300 + 0s
- nur0506 (2263) – Gyurodeszka (2219) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Bird Opening: Dutch Variation 1. f4 d5
Continuations
- Bird Opening: Williams Gambit (3… Nf6 4. Qe2) A03 · 1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qe2
- Bird Opening: Williams-Zilbermints Gambit A03 · 1. f4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nge2
More Bird Opening lines (all)
- Bird Opening A02
- 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: Horsefly Defense A02
- Bird Opening: Lasker Gambit 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.