Barnes Opening

The Barnes Opening, also known as Gedult's Opening and, in the United Kingdom, as the Half Bird (the pawn goes half as far as in Bird's Opening, 1. f4), is filed under A00 with the other irregular first moves. It takes its name from Thomas Wilson Barnes, the English player who beat Paul Morphy eight times and who is also associated with the Barnes Defense, 1. e4 f6.

The only positive function of 1. f3 is control of e4, which 1. e4 achieves at once. Otherwise the move develops nothing, frees no piece, and takes the natural f3 square away from the king's knight. It also loosens the kingside, opening the e1–h4 diagonal toward the uncastled king and the g1–a7 diagonal toward a king that later castles short. Edmar Mednis ranked it the worst of White's twenty first moves, and Benjamin Finegold's maxim "never play f3" is often quoted against it. The engine gives Black a slight edge, and Black scores better in online games.

Black's two main replies, 1...d5 and 1...e5, are about equally popular, with 1...e6 a distant third; engines favor 1...e5, which seizes the center and eyes h4. After 1...e5, 2. g4?? Qh4# is the Fool's Mate, and 2. h3 loses in two moves to 2...Qh4+ 3. g3 Qxg3#. The central try 2. e4 is the King's Head Opening, and 2...Nf6 3. Bc4 is the Walkerling. A more restrained setup, the Blue Moon Defense, runs 2. Nh3 d5 3. Nf2 Nf6 4. e3 Nc6 5. Be2 Bc5 6. O-O O-O; the knight goes to f2 via h3 to sidestep ...Bxh3, and White concedes the center in the hope of breaking through later.

Against 1...d5, White can continue 2. f4, a Dutch Defense with colors reversed, or head for the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit with 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 exf3 4. Nxf3 Nf6. The Gedult Gambit, 1...f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Nc3, also gives up the e-pawn for development.

The opening is best known as a taunt. Stronger players sometimes follow 1...e5 with the Hammerschlag, 2. Kf2, a form of the Bongcloud. Simon Williams used it to beat Martin Simons in the final round of the 1999 British Championship, when the result no longer mattered to him, and Magnus Carlsen played it against Wesley So in a 2020 blitz game. The cost of such experiments is shown by 1. f3 d5 2. Kf2 e5 3. e4 Bc5+ 4. Kg3 Qg5#.