BongCloud : The next most popular opening?

Hello.

I am here with another blog about openings.

Nowadays, I've seen some players play The BongCloud. It starts with the moves - e4 for white, after which white moves his king on his next move to the e2 square.

This has been played some times by GM Hikaru Nakamura in his games, where he drew using Double BongCloud. The opening's name is thought to originate either from Chess.com user @Lenny_Bongcloud who used the opening to little success, or to more generally be a reference to a bong.

There is only two master games with this opening in the chess.com database.

They are :

There is another opening which is sometimes used nowadays. This is the Barnes Opening: Hammerschlag Variation. It starts with the move f3, e5 and Kf2.

It can also be known as the Fried Fox Attack, Wandering King opening, The Tumbleweed, the Pork Chop opening or The Half Bird as it is often called in the United Kingdom, due to its opening move f3 being half that of the f4 employed in Bird's opening.

There hasn't been much analysis over this opening as it was very rarely used earlier. Engine Analysis (on depth 26) is -1.62, which indicates that black has a fairly good advantage by position.

Only six master games in the chess.com database have started with this opening.

These games are :

This opening can also be used by black. These openings are called the King's Pawn Opening: Barnes, Fried Fox Defense and Réti Opening: Arctic Defense respectively.

Some of the master games with these two openings are :

Some games I've played that were with the BongCloud Attack are :

You can watch engine chess matches with the BongCloud Opening here.

You can watch the lessons on this opening here.

Conclusion - The BongCloud Attack can be playable, but the other openings which are frequently used are definitely better than it. The King after moving to e2 blocks the diagonal for the queen and the white squared bishop and makes the king more vulnerable. 

Hope you all liked this blog.

Thank You!!