Barnes Opening: Fool's Mate
1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#
The Barnes Opening: Fool's Mate is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#. It is a line of the Barnes Opening. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 36 times by this move order. White won 0%, 0% were drawn and Black won 100%.
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnb1kbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/6Pq/5P2/PPPPP2P/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 3- PGN
1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 25 | |
| 1500-1999 | 10 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 36 |
Master games
2 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 0%, draw 0%, Black 100%). The strongest:
- GM Vladimir Kramnik (2753) – IM Yaroslav Remizov (2440) 0-1 · Titled Tue 8th Aug Early · 2023-08-08
- FM Aaron Jacobson (2301) – CM Isara Banidu Dahanayake (1721) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 8th June · 2021-06-08
Search all games of the Barnes Opening: Fool's Mate and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- dano12 (2063) – hpm59 (2092) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- PingIsPain (1983) – Odessit1952 (1946) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 300 + 0s
- bsosusoks (1500) – Mark_Arteur (2336) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Barnes Opening 1. f3
More Barnes Opening lines (all)
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.