Okay, so he goes e5. Now a lot of people here would just lazily develop the knight to f3, but we actually have a move here that poses a lot of practical problems for black and is borderline winning for white. The move is Ke2, and do not worry I will explain this more thoroughly after the game. Now you might look at this position and say, 'isn't this weakening our king and blocking in our pieces?' And while that may be true, you guys need to start thinking long term. In the endgame, it will be a huge advantage to have our king activated in the center. Furthermore, black has no threats here, his bishops are biting on granite - he is not going to checkmate us any time soon, our king is perfectly well defended on e2. Now he does have a nasty little defensive resource he can try here, let's see if he finds it. Wow, Ke7 he finds it. This guy is good. Now guys, I don't wanna hear any baseless accusations, we will check with an engine after the game. It's not unthinkable that a 1500 finds this move. No black has not equalized, we just need to play clinically to secure our advantage.
