Please tell me why 6 Qf3 is not in any of the openings? Is it bad? IF so, why? THanks

It has been played and even at the Master level. Andrew Karklins played it many times. The reason it is not popular is because it blocks playing f4, a common move against the Najdorf. It also exposes the Queen to giving up a tempo to black's ...Bg4 in some variations. You can probably find some of Karklins' games at chessgames.com if you are interested.

Here's a very famous game with an early Qf3: Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov vs Enrico Paoli (1954)

Despite the nice result, can you see that White ultimately ending up pushing the f-pawn forward in order to pursue an attack? Would it not have been easier if the f-pawn was pushed before Qf3 (although f4 was with tempo because it attacked the Knight, but we are talking general ideas).

However, there are lines in the 6 Bc4 variation were playing Qf3 is favorable over f4 followed by Qf3, the idea being that White is aiming for quick piece play, and to get the Bishop outside the pawn chain (often via Qg3 and Bh6) before locking it in with f4. However the Queen cannot stay on f3 forever, and nor can the pawn stay on f2 forever, as White needs to advance the f-pawn to open lines.

It's not so simple as active piece play vs. active pawn play, since f4 helps tie into an overall strategy of getting better squares for your pieces and opening lines for your pieces. So therefore f4 should be preferable because it ties in both concepts (but there are cases where it would be better if a pawn on f4 stood on f2, or where it would be better to just pursue quick piece play.)

yes, FM Karklins even beat top GM Peter Svidler with the Qf3 line way back in 1995, i think.

speaking of IM rashid nezhmetdinov, he's a great attacking player...he even beat the most sparkling attacker GM Mikhail Tal three times(!). i'm just unfortunate i couldn't find a book on Nezh, nor a compilation of his annotated attacking games...

The problem with 6.Qf3 is that it's too commital, and yo need to get your king to safety.

eg, if you're not going to try to stop e5 (via Bg5 of Bc4) then Be2 to get your king to safety is probably best. Be3 may also be okay - you're now castling queenside - but if you're castling queenside you probably want to advance your pawns before your Q on the kingside, so Qf3 just gets in the way.

Qf3 is a common move, AFTER f4, for example in the 6.Bc4 lines.

His games are at Chess Games Database I think there's a book out about him too. google is your friend!

He only beat Tal because Tal tried to play Nezh chess. I remember a game when someone played the Hippopotamus against Nezh, and Nezh just went crazy sacrificing things.

I own "Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess" which is rare, but is worth searching for. "Super Nezh" is also a possibility.

really, you have a copy of his games? where could i possibly get one free? haha, the abusive me.

I have “Super Nezh-Chess Assassin” by Alex Pishkin. It was published by Thinker’s Press in 2000. Highly recommended! If you like Tahl’s games you will like Nezhmetdinov’s.

I found only two games in my db where he played an early Qf3… one against Paoli (won) and one against Petrosian (lost). Both were played in 1954 and he seems to have abandoned the idea in later games.