If we select "Show threat" in
lichess.org/analysisWe will see "1. ... e5" is the top engine choice, but it's assuming the lines are perfect, but they I think they are not. If you do it on your computer and copy past the number in a post you might discover there are different lines. What bugged me the most (feature request) is having to add the spaces before the "#." and then added another space to separated the moves, just to show you all the results my old weak computer gives:
-0.4
Show threat
Depth 22/22, 459k nodes/s
-0.4 1...e5 2.e3 d5 3.d4 Nd7 4.c4 Ngf6 5.cxd5 exd4 6.Qxd4 Bc5 7.Qd1 O-O 8.a3 Nb6 9.Nc3
-0.4 1...Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.e3 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.a3 Bxc5 6.Nf3 O-O 7.c4 Bb6 8.b4 a5 9.c5
-0.3 1...c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 d5 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3N h5 7.dxc5 Nxf4 8.exf4 e6 9.Nbd2
-0.2 1...d5 2.Nf3 c5 3.e3 Nf6 4.d4 Nc6 5.dxc5 e5 6.Bb5 Bg4 7.c4 Bxc5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Qa4
-0.2 1...g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.c4 O-O 5.e3 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.e4 Nf6 8.Nc3 c5 9.d5
What if we ignore the highest black threat and worry about it a few moves later, does 1. ... e5 really have that much of an impact? I though it was more important to survive the first half of the game, so that the last half can avoid a lost game.
What if, the best moves from white are not always played by white, but black persists to play only best moves. Will 1. ... e5 still have the same end game results?
The beginning of the end of phases, by-the-numbers. Most will say the game has 3 phases, but I see it more like 6 or 2 parts. There is a beginning and an end to each phase. That would be a total of 6 parts to the phases. If we really want to minimize the phase story. There are only two in-between phases to be concerned about. That's the opening (P1+P2) and the ending (P2+P3) phases. So the middle game is really split a part between the opening and the ending.