Barnes Defense

     Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874) was an English master and one of the leading British masters at the time of Paul Morphy's visit to the UK in 1858 and he possessed the best record against Morphy, winning eight and losing nineteen. The only tournament he played in was London in 1862 (won decisively by Adolf Anderssen), where he finished tied for 6th-7th (out of 14) with Wilhelm Steinitz. He went on a diet and lost 130 pounds in 10 months, which resulted in his death. 
     As far as I know no information is available on how how much he weighed or how he lost 13 pounds per month.  It is known that increased body weight is generally associated with heightened risk of various diseases and that losing weight usually improves levels of risk factors for disease.  However, the effect of weight loss on the risk of early mortality is complicated. Even if a person loses weight health problems associated with being overweight may persist. 
     If I may digress, many years ago there was a weight loss pill called Tafon that was approved for sale in Victoria, Australia in 1956. The ad reminded us that, “You can lose up to pound a day safely, sanely, and enjoyably.” and, the ad also reminded us that Tafon is "No fat spelled backwards." 
     Tafon was a sponsor for a pro-wrestling program I watched as a kid and the overweight announcer did a demo in which he weighed in each week on the program to show the effectiveness the product. Sometime before his desired weight was reached he died, thus effectively destroying much of the product's reputation because, rightly or wrongly, Tafon took the blame. 
     There was also a 2010 study published in The International Journal of Obesity that showed that weight loss of 15 per cent or more was associated with an increased risk of death because rapid weight loss can create physical demands on the body. Possible serious risks include gallstones, dehydration, malnutrition, electrolyte imbalances. 
     Barnes has a good variation of the Ruy Lopez named after him (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6) although today it's better known as the Smyslov Defense. He also has an opening and a defense named after him that aren't nearly as good, 1.f3 and 1...f6. Edmar Mednis claimed that 1.f3 is the worst possible opening move. 
     Likewise, the Barnes Defense is even worse. It opens no lines, allows white free and easy development, deprives the g8 knight of its most natural square and weakens the position of black's K. The fact that Barnes used it once to defeat Morphy doesn't mean anything since Morphy's poor play later was responsible for his loss, not the defense. 
     Resembling the Barnes Defense is the Damiano Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6) with the important difference that white's second move makes the capture on e5 immediately possible.  It leads to either a forced win or a large advantage for White after 3.Nxe5. 
     With nothing much to do the other day I played 1.f3 and 1...f6 in several online games with a G10 time limit and since I wasn't playing any GMs, the results were about a 50 percent score.  As is usually the case, the result depended on how strong my opponents happened to be and not so much on the opening. Here is one of the more interesting games.