Reimagining 1.e4 (Paperback)

Every chess player faces an opening dilemma: big main lines are complicated and time-consuming to learn, while easy-to-learn sidelines usually suffer from other defects. Finding the best of both worlds has been an impossible dream – until now!

Reimagining 1.e4 offers the Holy Grail of a simple, easy-to-learn White repertoire, which packs a punch against all of Black’s main defences. In some lines, White unleashes a surprise as early as move 3. In others, White follows the known paths for a little longer, but only when there are big rewards to justify a modest effort.

Nikolaos Ntirlis is a correspondence IM who has worked as an openings advisor for numerous GMs. His books for Quality Chess have established him as one of the world’s top authors on chess openings, with an ideal balance of theoretical correctness and practical effectiveness.

Reviews

IM John Watson (Chess Life magazine)
“I read Reimagining 1. e4 from cover to cover and enjoyed it a lot. I’m not sure Ntirlis’ suggestions against lesser variations are always optimal in a theoretical sense, but they are fascinating, practical, and often ingenious. To me, the lasting value of the book resides in the way he has found solutions in major openings that are both simpler to play and more challenging than heavily analyzed main lines. I think most of Ntirlis’ suggestions have legs and will persist even after they have been played more. In these days of obsessive opening preparation, that’s saying a lot.”

Sean Marsh (CHESS magazine)
“It is no mean trick to produce material which appeals to and entices players ranging from club players to grandmasters, but this book does exactly that and, as such, comes highly recommended.”

CM Han Schut (YouTube)
“This book is a goldmine of opening ideas and novelties that stronger players can feast on.”
(full review)

Forward Chess
“In conclusion, this is an exceptional and clear book that can be recommended to a wide range of players. The author has done an amazing amount of work and provided a repertoire for White after 1.e4 that can serve for many years. The suggested lines are clearly explained and backed by extensive computer-based analysis. The lines are fundamentally sound, rather than gimmicky one-off tricks that can be easily refuted. The book is therefore an exemplar of what a good opening book should be.”
(full review)

GM Matthew Sadler (New In Chess magazine)
“The more I read it, the more this book felt like a very good distillation of what a reasonably strong player would need to know to venture this whole repertoire with confidence. It’s a really impressive opening book once again from this author.”
(full review)