The Bird’s Defense is a solid line in the Ruy Lopez that starts with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4. Black looks to get their very active in the center of the board and threaten the white bishop. While this isn’t the most common line in the Ruy Lopez it is still very solid.
Bird’s Defense: Ruy Lopez Chess Opening

My friend is good at ruy lopez and im gonna destroy him with this 🤣😅
me: plays the ruy lopez
opponent: plays the bird's defense
me: :C
now i will hate the ruy lopez 🙁
I am the Greatest ! Ruy Lopez.
Thanks for this Video, I hope you can make some more opening tricks by the great one ,the Art and Science of Chess!!!!
Thanks!
If Charlie Kelly played chess
Love the bird's defense!!! Hehe
but what if they take the knight?
absolutely brilliant…flip side….the other dudes r learning the same strategy too….brutal stuff kevin…appreciate the stuff///……
4:58
not really, white can take en pessant
I play Blackbourne-Shilling Gambit very often. I started playing Nd4 also against Ruy Lopez. Didn't know that this variation has an own name called Bird's Defense
The first minutes look a lot like the Kostic Gambit
5:00 what about en passant after d5 for white?
onceknight is taken theres a mainline missed here which i see more than anything
Doesn’t the Bird’s Defense kind of go against Chess principles as far as moving the same piece multiple times in the opening?
what if he takes en passant the d5 pawn at 5:02 ?
This defence is just bad if white doesn't fall for taking on e5, everyone plays this against me in lower rated games and loses badly lol. Good if you think you can trick your opponent but there are way cooler, more serious defences against the ruy lopez, the berlin, the arkhangelsk, etc.
Gonna spam this against a friend who spams ruy lopez
This opening is not boring. 😂😆😆😆
after the d5 move at 5:03, can't e5 take d5 en passant?
White can use en passant at 4:58 doesn’t have to move bishop
At 4:58, why wouldn’t they just en passant after d5?
This feels so complete and are definitely helpful tips for a beginner like myself, thank you so much!!!
what if knight to f7?
4:57 couldn't the e5 pawn just en passant?
in min 3:47 if black plays Nf6 white can push E pawn forward and knight has to go back so Nf6 = bad move or am I missing something ??
O birdy
At 4:56 cant they just en passant?
d7-d5 why doesn't white d5xd6
What abou 4. c3
@5:04 What about 'en passant' for white, e5 x d5?
I'm not sure about the pawn push on the a file @5:11 as white always has a3, ba2 which is a very common position for white in the ruy Lopez and a comfortable pressure diagonal for the light squared bishop always pressuring the weak f7 square on the kings side. Thoughts?
now im gonna play this everytime against the Ruy Lopez.. just played as white against this kinda opening against a +100 higher rated player and fortunately won.. but I loved the opening so checked it out !! ❣️❣️
Using this as my prep for an opponent who im sure will play the ruy lopez, thank you!
regarding the variation in 4:46, in one game I brushed the d pawn then he captured it En passant
i believe we can get all pieces across without lossing any !
Thanks good video
Good, concise, no time wasting. Thank you. Rooee Lopez 😊
your explanation are complicated! I hope you explain it step by step at the begining…
Brilliant! Thanks for the video
It it not pronounced Roo I Lopez. In Spanish, the letter y is never pronounced in that way. If in doubt, why not simply look it up instead of mangling the name?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjmhuWl2Zw4
At 4:58 the white pawn can just play "En passent" move (not sure about the spelling tho)
Why c6 not a6 to attack the bishop?
Watching this lets me know how much of chess i have 4got…i had a opening that was so good and unorthodox… every new player I played said the same thing I never seen someone open like that that I couldn't beat… I pretty much mastered it it was my go-to opening when a player was much stronger than me…. over the years I can't remember what I did to counter the unorthodox opening so I stopped using it.. with that being said I really wish while I was using that opening that I could have played someone that was a known great player to see if it was as good as I thought…
the bird is very anti-theory, i hate facing it
Ka ka kaw!
I played a game with Ruy Lopez opening as black and played intuitively but almost identical, to the Bird's defense!
After 4. Ng5 Qxg5, everything went downhill from that point for white. this variation is simply amazing!
can the e5 pawn en pesant the d5?
damn this is one hell of a defense
very helpful! thanks!
5:24 whats stopping black from moving c4? Kind of blows up the whole plan, if you know what i mean.
Dun dun tssss