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.