French Defense: Bird Invitation
1. e4 e6 2. Bb5
The French Defense: Bird Invitation is a chess opening classified as ECO C00, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. Bb5. It is a line of the French Defense. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,310 times by this move order. White won 44%, 5% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 2… c6 (42% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.12 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 2… a6 3. Be2 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Nf3)
- ECO
- C00
- Moves
- 3 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/4p3/1B6/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK1NR b KQkq - 1 2- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. Bb5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 758 | |
| 1500-1999 | 516 | |
| 2000+ | 36 | |
| All | 1,310 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2… c6 | 548 (42%) | |
| 2… a6 | 326 (25%) | |
| 2… c5 | 65 (5%) | |
| 2… Nc6 | 62 (5%) | |
| 2… Nf6 | 61 (5%) | |
| 2… Bc5 | 48 (4%) | |
| 2… b6 | 44 (3%) | |
| 2… Be7 | 23 (2%) |
Master games
60 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 57%, draw 6%, Black 37%). The strongest:
- GM Robby Kevlishvili (2531) – IM Kirill Kozionov (2444) 1-0 · Titled Tue 30th Jan Early · 2024-01-30
- GM Susanto Megaranto (2477) – IM Tao Pang (2485) 1-0 · Asian Individual Blitz · 2025-05-10
- IM Stefan Mazur (2416) – GM Sergei Shipov (2541) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 26th Jan · 2021-01-26
- GM Aryan Tari (2621) – IM Levy Rozman (2324) 1-0 · Titled Tue 4th Mar Early · 2025-03-04
- IM Ashot Nadanian (2248) – GM Sanan Sjugirov (2651) 1-0 · Titled Tue 2nd Jul Early · 2024-07-02
Search all games of the French Defense: Bird Invitation and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- zlatnakisa33 (2394) – RainOverHiroshima (2310) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- Lars_Schiele (2200) – London-Gambit (2192) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- DoppleGanger20 (2108) – Geni-64 (2222) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense (1. e4 e6) 1. e4 e6
More French Defense lines (all)
- French Defense (2. d4 d5) C00
- French Defense: Alapin Gambit C00
- French Defense: Baeuerle Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit, Pinova Gambit C00
- French Defense: Carlson Gambit C00
- French Defense: Chigorin Variation C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit Accepted C00
- French Defense: Franco-Hiva Gambit C00
- French Defense: Franco-Hiva Gambit Accepted C00
- French Defense: Franco-Sicilian Defense C00
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.