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.

I was doing a bit of a social experiment to see what it’s like being on the minority of the argument and how easily angered people can be. It succeeded, long story short. All the games between TheSampson and ScrumptiousBricks were staged (and unrated so it didn’t break chess.com guidelines) as well as the little fights we had, like Bricks throwing a tantrum in the middle of the forums talking about how nobody wants to listen to Sampson.

exd5 then Nc6? Isnt there dxc6 that gives White material advantage? I usually presume the move is c6 to make White capture the pawn, followed by Nxc6

#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.

Meanwhile you ranked the Modern as 2 and it also cedes the center... you're grasping at straws coming up with reasons, but it's obvious you just don't play the line or understand it.

#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.

You have very little substantive to say here. My advice would be that you refrain from drawing conclusions on openings before playing them. Scandi is far better than Owens - it's much harder to refute, the refutation of Owens isn't really that complex or difficult. 

#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.

The fact you put the Sicilian this low on the list lost you alot of credibility. You have have said almost nothing relevant about the Sicilian here that would prove you understand the opening. 

#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.

It practically transposes with the modern, but you've put the modern at number 2 and this at number 5. Very confusing. The Pirc isn't avoided because it's passive, it's avoided because it's dangerous when white pushes e5 at any moment. If you get past this phase of the game it's usually transposing with the modern... 

#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.

Again you should just how little you understand chess. e4/e5 probably leads to the widest variety of pawn structures of any opening in all of chess. It's extremely complex... you can play badly, sure. I'm sure that you do. Also, the Scotch is very bad, and black makes alot of the decisions in the Ruy Lopez, its certainly not prohibitive for black to play. The biggest problem for black is the Italian, black can't do much to avoid it or steer the game in his direction. Generally I agree e4/e5 is good for white because white has alot of the ability to make decisions, and infact there's so much tactical variety that white can often take black down some obscure tactical line and just beat him through rote memorization. But it certainly isn't the Scotch that's the issue here. Also... the italian explodes in complexity, you can't even memorize the opening. Simple...? No. If you play some of the forcing lines it can be simple. That's white playing badly... simple for black is a good thing. What black really has to fear here are the piano and pianissimo italian. Or the bishops opening, or the vienna if played well. 

#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.

It's usually white the benefits from an asymmetrical game, not black. But the problem with this defense is, in addition to white choosing the variation, white has many strong attacking lines that put blacks king in great danger. 

#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.

Black has a few decisions but white has tons of decisions as to what setup he wants to play as well. Black isn't restricting whites decisions in any sense. 

#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.

You said nothing about the two most theoretically significant variations, the tarrasch and the paulsen. 

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

ibrust

I play the Scandi quite a lot, and I really love it, but there are way too many lines that white is the better side. Owen's is very asymmetrical which makes it easier to play for a win.

Black is attempting to attack white's center, with out having the slightest risk, is poised to castle kingside, but is flexible enough that he could choose to wait and potentially castle queenside and make the game even more dynamic.

The Pirc is more passive than the Modern because the only good follow up for black is to go into the Modern so it's silly to do this 1st. When the top 10 are all really close, subjective tie-breakers are more likely to happen.

E5 is to symmetrical here. When I mentioned Scotch or Ruby, I was referring to them as examples of positions where everything is equal except for 1 small advantage for white, so black can't really play for a win.

The main point with the Sicilian is that black needs to respond very differently to like a million different responses, and he still would be in an arguably worse position. White meanwhile is very flexible, and doesn't even need to know much theory to get a solid position. Even if white played 2.a4 the position would still be practically equal (not saying he should do this, just making a point).

Or white can always go for Bb5+ after d6 and c5 have both been played.

And after 2.f4

Add to that the wing gambit, which I think is really underrated. Black is not the one forcing white to know theory it's the other war around.