Barnes Defense = What the heck??

My name is Caleb Williams, I'm an 1000 rated player and I continue to learn the complications and elegance of chess through hard-work, dedication, with a side of your amusement and hope to 'continue my journey to chess mastery' - Chessable youtube ad 2020

This series of blogs will be devoted towards the funny side of chess, such as ridiculous openings, horrible games I've had (So you can laugh at me), and interesting discussions I've had with experienced and talented players 

'WHY!!!' might you ask. Well dear reader, I will go through the pain and suffering so YOU don't have to!!

Today, we will discuss the transposition kings pawn opennig: Barnes Defense 2, d4. 

The transposition is due to 1. e4 f6 being considered the Queens pawn opening. However, transposes into the Kings pawn opening: Barnes defense 2. d4. Although d4 was played on the first move (Isn't that weird?).

But enough about the name, I shall now explain why this opening is terrible.

No. 1) If played correctly,  you will be down almost two points in material.

No need to really explain, your pawn structure restricts the movement of vital pieces without any compensation

No.2) The top engine moves following No.1

Depending on what engine you use, different ideas can unfold. However, I believe Nh6 is good because it obviously allows you to develop a piece and get ready to tear open the center with moves such as f5. Nevertheless, black has wasted a lot of time and white can consolidate with quick development. As well as losing time, blacks pawn structure looks like trigonometry (Fun for a psycho). I must admit I like trigonometry, however, I very much dislike this position.

No.3) Oh yes... I forgot the bishops

It's obvious, this isn't a bishop friendly opening for black (or any piece!!). Because blacks pawn structure revolves around the dark squares, the dark squared bishop is stuck. If white plays correctly, then they would've been successful to deploy their pawns onto light squares, closing the center and ruling blacks light square bishop out of the equation. Even if black tries to break the center, white would've had the ability to consolidate quickly and make that an impossible feat to accomplish. 

In conclusion, if your playing d4 as white and black responds f6:

• commit to the center with e4 and achieve a closed position
• Develop your light-square bishop to c4, reinforcing future closure of the position
• Attack the center with f4, but never be the aggressor (unless you must).

If you are black and you respond to d4 with f6, then;

• Rethink your life decisions for a while (24 hours is sufficient)
• No need to be fancy, d5 is still a solid response to d4 (I play it myself)
• Obviously consider the preceding blog (I've wasted so much time to explain this)

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, hopefully it was helpful and readable at the same time. I will further continue the series if you enjoyed this blog (otherwise I might go outside and do some exercise or something). If you have any feedback or ideas, flick me a message, anything is something.

Cheers, have a good one

Caleb Williams