Barnes Opening
The Barnes Opening (sometimes called Gedult's Opening) is a chess opening where White opens with: 1. f3 The opening is named after Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874), an English player who had an impressive eight wins over Paul Morphy, including one game where Barnes answered 1.e4 with 1...f6, known as the Barnes Defence. Along with several other uncommon first moves, it is classified under the code A00 (irregular openings or uncommon openings) in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. Strategy Of the twenty possible first moves in chess, author and grandmaster Edmar Mednis argues that 1.f3 is the worst. Grandmaster Benjamin Finegold teaches "Never play f3". In his text on openings, Paul van der Sterren considered 1.f3 beneath mention by name: The move does exert influence over the central square e4, but the same or more ambitious goals can be achieved with almost any other first move. The move 1.f3 does not a piece, opens no for pieces, and actually hinders the development of White's by denying it its most natural square, f3. It also weakens White's pawn structure, opens the e1–h4 diagonal against White's uncastled king, and opens the g1–a7 diagonal against White's potential kingside castling position. Since 1.f3 is a