Whatever you call it, the Barnes Opening, the Fried Fox Attack, the Wandering King Opening, the Hammerschlag, the Tumbleweed, the Bongcloud, the Pork Chop Opening or the Half Bird and even if the late GM Edmar Mednis called it the worst opening move possible and GM Ben Finegold lists it on his Never Play list. I say never say never play 1.f3.
It's named after Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874), an English player who had eight wins over Paul Morphy, including one game where Barnes answered 1.e4 with 1...f6, known as the Barnes Defense.
It's considered bad because it does not take control of the center, it takes away the f3 square for the N, it doesn’t allow development of any pieces and it seriously weakens safety of white’s King.
I play it occasionally in online blitz games and sometimes it works out quite well because my opponents, not realizing that there is no immediate, crushing refutation, have ignored commonsense rules of development and control of the center.
Black can secure a comfortable advantage by advancing central Pawns and rapidly developing pieces to assert control over the center, but there is no forced way to confute the opening.
It's a waste of time for amateurs to go too deeply into memorizing opening lines. The thing about any opening is that at some point both players are going to start playing at their skill level and that is what is going to decide the game. And, that's why 1.f3 works, but only if you are playing opponents who are at, or below, your skill level. An example...
Tartajubow–Guest1–0A00Chess Hotel G/5+32023Stockfish 15.1
Barnes Opening 1.f3 b6 2.f2 b7 3.c3 e6 Black has played an odd setup
to be sure. 4.c2 h4+ Rather pointless because the Q simply has to retreat.
Either 4...c5 or 4...d5 would have been more precise. 5.g3 f6 6.g2 c5+
I wanted to be critical of this move which appears to only result in another
loss of time, but according to the engines the position is quite equal.
Stockfish suggests that both 6...g5 and 6...Nc6 would have left black with a
smidgen of an advantage. 7.d4 d6 Retreating to e7 deprives the N of its
best square. Black probably played this with the intention of playing ...e5 8.e4 f8 Clearly black's development has gone completely wrong! He should have
continued with the planned ...e5 8...e5 was best...it leads to some real
complications. 9.f4 Again threatening a P fork on e5. exf4 10.e5 fxg3+ 11.xg3 xe5+ 12.dxe5 xe5+ 13.f4 e1+ Stockfish puts white's advantage at a
P, but that means nothing. This game is being played by two amateurs at blitz
speed and anything could happen! 9.h3 h6 10.d2 d6 10...e5 would still
work. 11.dxe5 xe5 12.b3 c6 13.e3 0-0-0 with about equal chances. 10...c6 is also plausible. 11.e1 0-0-0 but white is better because
black still has some development problems. 10...d5 is another possibility.
11.b4 dxe4 12.xe4 d8 13.f4 but here, too, black will find completing
his development difficult. 11.f4 c6 Pointless. 11...Nc6 and ...O-O-O was
better. 12.c4 d7 13.e1 0-0-0 14.d2 My development is complete, but
the N on h3 is rather poorly placed. Black still has to finish developing his
pieces and the Ps in front of his K are loose. As a result, white is better,
but not by much...just about a Ps worth. d5 15.e5 e7 This innocent looking
retreat turns out to be a serious mistake. 15...g6 is the right move
because white has nothing better than exchanging Qs which lessens his
attacking possibilities and makes the defense easier. 16.xg6 16.d6+ xd6 17.xg6 fxg6 18.exd6 f8 and black has nearly equalized, but he still needs
to complete his development plus the e-Pawn is backward and his position is
badly cramped. White's difficulty is that his pieces don't have a lot of scope.
16...fxg6 17.e3 c5 White is better, but it's hard to suggest a
reasonable plan of operation and it looks like it's going to be a long game. 16.d6+ This is a bone in black's throat and it shows why having the Q on e7
is a huge disadvantage. b8 17.a4 a6 18.b4 f6 19.b5 This move,
breaking up the position around black's K requires no calculation...it just
has to be good. fxe5 20.fxe5 g5 21.xb7 xb7 22.bxc6+ xc6 23.c4 More digging is required to get at black's K. b7 24.cxd5 f7+ 25.f4
White wants to mate with d6+. 25.g1 Wins, but it takes longer. exd5 26.e6 f6 27.xd5+ b8 28.c6 25...gxf4 Black lost on time. 25...gxf4 26.d6+ b8 27.c7# 1–0
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