[That_Guy]

A big difference is that closed chords like barre chords for example can be slid up and down the neck to produce other notes using the same shape. Barre at fret three is a g, slide up to fret five and it is an A.

If you move an open chord further up the neck it sounds bad because you didnt slide the open strings along with the fretted strings, except in the case of using a capo