I ranked all 20 responses to e4 for black

A couple months ago I ranked all of white's moves in this forum here:https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/i-ranked-all-20-first-moves-for-white?page=1 This time it's black that I'm ranking the moves for, in how they respond to e4. Just like my previous ranking, I did check the engine, and stats etc, but really since they all end in a draw if both players play right, it is mainly my opinion. (Experimenting with these moves caused my rating to go down by about 100).

#20: No name (b5):

Gives up a free pawn and lets white instantly develop its white squared bishop. The record isn’t nearly as good as it looks when you look at how well the continuations go. You open up room for your queenside bishop to develop, but you can make it a fianchetto and not lose a pawn by doing b6 instead.

#19 Duras Gambit (f5):

There’s little compensation for this gambit. It’s basically a worse version of the already bad King’s Gambit.

#18 Lemming Defense (Na6):

One of black’s advantages is that it gets to decide whether the game is a same side or opposite side castling game. That advantage gets squandered if white just takes the knight (which, for some reason, hasn't been done in the master games, and is why black does so well with it).

#17 Borg Defense (g5):

Most of the traps in the Grob attack don’t work with e4. This position is terrible, though I do feel from anecdotal awareness that white can still mess up here easier than the other 3. And there’s no free pawn.

#16 Ware Defense (a5):

It disposes of your choice on whether the game is same side or opposite side castling. In fact you can only castle properly on the kingside, so white now has that advantage, as well as a sizable lead in development and center control. You get…easier rook development, and more offense if white chooses to castle queenside, I guess? It does force a (semi) closed game though.

#15 Goldsmith Defense (h5):

Unlike Ware defense, this sort of capitalizes on your choice in castling, and forces a same sided catling game, though that's assuming both players castle. Unfortunately, you can’t make the game open without white’s approval, and you lag behind in center-control and development.

#14 St George Defense (a6)

You did get to decide that it’s a very closed game, but it literally just gives white full control of the center.

#13 Carr Defense (h6)

Same as St George defense, except this move at least prevents white from moving its knight or bishop to g5, which is an annoying spot. Also it can sort of lead to a spot similar to the French Defense, even though it’s really not as good.

# 12 Hippopotamus Defense (Nh6):

This opening does actually have some benefits, in letting the knights double attack a center pawn, or this knight aiding a future pawn, or even if it gets traded and cripples your kingside, this works as black because there’s something to attack. But it’s still passive, and will still probably have your kingside crippled.

#11 Barnes Defense (f6):

When played out right, it transitions into a variation of Ruy Lopez, which I’d say is better for white, but it’s still playable. Or you stick with the Barnes Defense, in the form of Fried Fox Defense. It’s so easy to blunder though…

#10 Scandinavian Defense (D5):

I’d say this is the 1st good move on this ranking. By the way this and the next 6 are all real close. The sad thing is that I was originally deciding between 2, 3, or 4. When white takes the pawn don’t recapture it, do Nc6 instead. White does have some tempting lines that actually favor black, hence why I thought I’d put it so high, but it also has several others that are better for white. It’s great against gullible players though.

#9 Owen’s Defense (b6)

You get a queen side fianchetto, and establish positive asymmetry, and you can also use this move to support a c5 advance. Don’t let its record fool you either, the following line (where white always does the most popular move at master level): 1e4 b6, 2d4 Bb7, 3Bd3 d6 has black winning 39% of the time while white wins a measly 17%. Since that is only based off of 18 master games though, it’s really not an overwhelming proof, and therefore has to wind up here even though I like it more than a few that I put higher. I definitely prefer it over its counter as white, b3, because it causes good asymmetry.

#8 Sicilian Defense (c5):

I really don’t agree with myself for putting it this high, but because of its stats, popularity, and engine placement, it wouldn’t be right to put it much lower. If white does b4 (which would be my choice, the wing gambit), Nc3, or Nf3 white is better, if not black is probably as good or better.

#7 Alekhine’s Defense (Nf6):

There’s simply too many easy mistakes for black to put this much higher, and because it was so close to the next ones that had to be the tie-breaker. If white does anything other than e5 the stats either favor black or are even. If white does e5, black’s knights wind up side-by-side on b6 and c6, indirectly controlling the center, and black can trade their less developed pieces white’s more developed pieces

#6 Nimzowitsch Defense (Nc6)

There aren't many options in this opening that aren’t better for white, but the ones that are good work very well.

#5 Pirc Defense (d3):

It transitions a couple positions usually reached by g6 or c6 that in my view favors black (as well as statistically). It also has several intimidating lines of its own. I feel like it’s a bit passive, but very playable.

#4 King’s pawn opening: (e5):

This is the easiest move to play, not the best one. Isn’t black supposed to be establishing asymmetry? And when white plays Nf3 next, Nc6 should lead into Ruy Lopez or Scotch Game, which are both way better for white. If you want to keep the game simple you should do this and go for maybe Petrov’s Defense or something.

#3 Caro-kann Defense (c6):

This move lets black establish asymmetry very fast, and equality is reached equally quick. It does block the knight, but it can go do d7 and support the knight on f6 instead. Its only real flaw is that white is now the one deciding whether the game is same side/opposite side castling, but neither side can get everything.

#2 Modern Defense (g6):

This allows a kingside fianchetto. It can go into the Neo modern, or even transpose into the Great snake variation of the English opening. Black is the one that decides most of this though, not white.

#1 French Defense (e6):
Symmetry is reached through the exchange variation, where white will have a hard time not avoiding passivity or zugzwang. The advance variation lets black do c5, so white’s best move is Nc3 where black can do whatever it wants.

I'm planning on ranking the responses to d4 next. Please let me know what your thoughts on this ranking are below.

Oh I almost forgot to mention, feel free to post your own rankings too.

thumbs up this comment if you think this one is better than the other one

i dare you

this is... surprise... even worse somehow if not at the same level

first off, e4 d5 exd5 Nc6? dxc6 i think you mean Nf6

second off, a6 is playable, d6 just gets crushed with some lines if you transpose to g6 and how to transpose to c6?

c5 cant be that low

how does black decide that g6 becomes the great snake (c4 g6), white does that (if even possible) by playing c4

Nh6... white plays d4 and wheres the knight going? oh you play g6 after....

and where did your idea that black gets to choose the castling of the game even come from? yeah sometimes black chooses (like in the e5 you find so eh) but not usually

and if imbalance is the main goal

WHY IS C5 SO LOW

going down to up i would put so its my opinion all you ratings shamers im not saying everyone should agree

20: f5 it weakens the king

19: b5 it doesnt

18: Nh6 this ones worse because black has to basically contrive to not fatally weaken 0-0

17: f6 weakens your king for not much, what sort of ruy lopez are you transposing to??

16: Na6 weird knight developments

15: a5 this is a suboptimal queenside attack at best

14: g5 this is actually a decent kingside attack if you make it work

13: h5 as a kingside attack this is fine

12: h6 probably the best out of the "bad" responses, probably because it weakens nothing

11: a6 this ones decent because its actually an ok way to attack the queenside and has decent lines

10: b6 doesnt prepare 0-0, and a teeny bit dubious?

9: d6 its a bit weird and everything else just has some reason for being higher

8: d5 will always feel kinda attached to this coz i used to play it but its actually decent, not good though

7: Nf6 its a very good weapon in the hands of someone who likes counterattacking centers

6: g6 this ones better than d6 because of the tigers modern lines

5: c6 its here due to spite on the community who are kinda lazy, should deserve one higher

4: Nc6 should be one lower due to reasons above, anyway this is so high because it just actually is, there are many lines where black isnt even worse and more comfortable

3: e6 cant put this higher no matter how much i want to, its just such a good and kinda underrated opening which i would switch to if i was forced to switch to something else

2: c5 im really sorry but i just dont play it, i understand how good the positions are but i just prefer the ones coming out of

1: e5 why is 1. e4 a good move? for those exact reasons 1... e5 is a good move, its that simple

there are plenty of opportunities to switch it up later, also i play this and i know the positions arising from here better than the others

Ruy Lopez or Scotch Game, which are both way better for white.

whut??

by that metric half your loved openings should go down and 1...c5 should reign supreme (even tho you PUT IT IN 8TH)

could have sworn this had a name

refutation

How is modern defense number 2? Hmm 🤔

My top 5 personally would be

1. Sicilian

2. Caro

3. E5

4. French

5. Pirc

but objectively it’s easily

1. e5

2. Sicilian

3. Caro

4. french

5. Pirc

to be objective itd be c5, e5, e6, c6 i think honestly edit and fifth wouldnt be the pirc

i would say objectively e5 is top. But ig c5 and e5 can be ranked interchangeably as 1 and 2, same thing with e6 and c6 as 3 and 4. I would think Pirc would be the 5th, if not, I can’t think of anything else

modern

nimzowitsch

thats atleast two, though these lists imo should not be strictly objective but they should be close to it (not as ridiculous as the op which just jumbles everything)

Barnes defense transposes into ruy lopez nuremberg variation like this.

As for why the sicilian is so low, I actually wanted to put it at 11 because it's so easily refuted.

You actually have a decent ranking yourself though.

Because black has an even record to white in master games under it.

Sicilian aside, I like your personal top 5. Thereisn't really a clear cut objective one though, because every one of them ends in a tie if both players have 100% accuracy.

you heard it here first folks

someone wanted to put the sicilian below the barnes defense because the sicilian is so easily refuted, more easily refuted than the barnes, vs which white can play a easy game where blacks king is weak

#14 wouldnt say that e4 b5 or e4 f5 objective draw....

i meant more like "how easy is the draw" ie "how big is the corridor of drawing" or "how well is it considered by theory"

Did this guy just try to refute the Sicillian with WING GAMBIT?

20-16 (The Objectively Bad): f5, b5, f6, g5, Na6. 
15-12 (The Nonsensical): a5, Nh6, h5, h6. 
11-8 (The Questionable): a6, b6, d6, d5. 
7-1 (The Good): g6, Nf6, c6, e6, Nc6, e5, c5. 
People underrate the Nimzowitsch, despite the fact that the Accepted is quite good for Black and the Declined is literally just e5 part two.

exactly what i was talking about

look at this

"but why play this if you are willing to go into e5 lines"

because the other lines are actually quite decent and might be seen as preferable to say the vienna, kg, danish...

looks kinda tempting ngl

Sicilian and Caro-kann Defense are my choice.