Greetings Readers!
I’m delighted to announce that our latest title is being printed, and it’s a beauty!

Reimagining 1.e4 is the title of this wonderful new book by our dear friend Nikos Ntirlis. The style and content of this book live up to the title in every way. Nikos has assembled an arsenal of opening ideas covering the full 1.e4 spectrum. Nothing in the book requires excessive memorization of variations. Many of the weapons carry great surprise value and lead to positions which are practically unpleasant for Black, even when the engine verdict ends up as 0.00.
This book offers a 1.e4 repertoire against all major defences – but at 304 pages, it is not, and does not try to be, a complete guide against every move Black may try. GM Anish Giri was so impressed with Nikos’s ideas that he agreed to write a foreword. You can read it along with the rest of the excerpt here.
Although Nikos’s superb work takes centre stage, I’m also proud of the fantastic team effort that took place. Kallia created a wonderful cover design and Jacob came up with a fresh internal aesthetic, redesigning chapter cover pages while keeping our signature style in other places, so it’s still unmistakeably a Quality Chess book. “Reimagining” was the theme throughout. Kostis edited maybe 75% and I edited the rest, in between other duties. Richard Palliser was a great asset with proofreading and other final checks. Well done team!
The book will be published in December (exact date to be confirmed), partnered up with Magic Chess Moves as featured on a previous blog post.
Finally, I’ll quickly mention that Beating the Queen’s Gambit – Indian Style! and Conceptual Rook Endgames Workbook are now published and should be on sale in all good chess shops.
What could I write? Simply great!
I ‘ am looking very much forward to that book!
Paul
I love It!!!
I was wondering if N. Ntirlis is planning to write a book like this one, but with 1.e4 + 1.c4 instead. Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Sorry! 1.d4 & 1.c4
Thanks Paul – I’m sure you will enjoy the book.
DaGo – thanks for clarifying. I didn’t reply before as I was confused about what you meant. Now it makes sense.
Nikos is working on something else for now, which will be announced at a later date. It’s certainly possible that we’ll publish “Reimagining (something else)” in future.
Thank you Mr.Greet for your reply. I will keep an eye out for updates 🙂 Happy day
Greetings, Will the book be in the Forward Chess format later??
My first impression of Reimagining 1.e4 is simply outstanding. It´s really impressive how Nikos managed to find so many interesting ideas and put it into a concise repertoire and book.
I´m sure I will incorporate many of his suggestions into my own repertoire.
One opening that seems to be missing is the Gurgenidze: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 followed by …d5 or 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 g6. Any suggestions from Nikos would be welcome.
Keep up the great work!
James – the book is now available on FC.
Tom – Thanks for the positive words, and I wholeheartedly agree!
There are many good suggestions out there for meeting the Gurgenidze – not least in my own book from 2012. If you happen to use X/Twitter, you could ask Nikos directly if he has any fresh ideas. I might also keep a shortlist of notable omissions and ask Nikos about them, possibly making a blog post of his ideas at some point down the line.
I don´t use X so a blog post when the time is right would be fine with me.
Btw, the most glaring omission is the missing refutation of the Elephant Gambit. Seeing who is the Chief Editor I assume that was intentional. Just kidding of course 😉
I actually like that the book concentrates on the critical stuff. There is no need to waste space on another refutation of the Latvian and stuff like that.
I bought the book and was quite glad to the omission of my pet Sicilian Scheveningen line……..
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Nc3 d6 6 g4, where Nikos only gives 6…a6 when White plays 7 Nxc6 bxc6.
However Nikos fails to mention Marin’s suggestion of 6…Nge7, where Nikos’ idea doesn’t work as Black can simply play 7…Nxc6!
Hello ! I got the book and did not find the Grivas Sicilian 4…Qb6. Could you add this line to the list ? Thanx
The Grivas Sicilian seems to be missing also.
Good evening all at QC,
While I understand that this book is not supposed to cover all lines Black can pIay, I wanted to check if the Grivas Sicilian (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6) is covered please? I don’t seem to see it in the excerpt anywhere?
If it isn’t, is it possible to as perhaps suggest a line for White against that? It is quite popular for Black lately (certainly more popular than some of the other Sicilian lines covered in the book), and it is actually a good scorer for Black. It is also the subject of a database by Avrukh too, as well as a few other sources.
Thank you for your time.
Hey James,
I recommend:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Qb6 6. Nb3 e6 7. Qe2!
I also mention the move order with 4…Qb6 in a note: 5. Nb3 Nf6 6. Nc3 “transposes”
If I understand correctly, Boris goes for 5…e6 in the above line? Not sure what he wants to do after 6.Nc3 as again 6…Nf6 seems like the best move to me (and Stockfish).
Generally, in the Sicilian, there are a ton of small ideas like these. These days, Stockfish can give you the answer in seconds, even if you use the engine in a website and not in our PC. So, it seems pointless for me to spend room for all these small lines.
I am pretty sure that some of these sidelines will end up being decent for Black, if analyzed deeply and that they would deserve some mention.
In any case, I’ll collect stuff which I missed and will share an update with you here.
Hi, a quick question on Beating the Queen’s Gambit – Indian Style, does this cover other white 2nd moves than c4? E.g. can it and the Nimzo book form a complete repertoire after 1.d4?
Tried to find an excerpt to check, but didn’t seem to be able to see it on the website.
Hello Nikolaos,
I am a (very) recreative player (only playing blitz on the web, around 2300), but I wanted to tell you that I have great, great fun reading your book. It’s well written, full of ideas, and even for a non-competitive player like me, it is a wonderful read. Thanks for all the work !
Pierre
Hi folks!
I see Nikos has answered the question about the Grivas Sicilian. I’m sure you will all understand that we were trying to walk a line between providing enough essential information while keeping the book concise. That being said, occasional updates by Nikos on his social media (for those who follow it) and the QC blog would seem like a good solution to the more significant omissions (except the Elephant of course, which we all know to be a lost cause for White).
Nikos is a great guy and I see he already volunteered to do this without my asking him.
Robert – the two Renier Castellanos books do indeed form a complete repertoire against 1.d4. If you check the excerpt of “Beating the Queen’s Gambit – Indian Style!”, you’ll see on the Contents page that there are multiple chapters covering various options after 1.d4 Nf6.
What in the Caro-Kann Karpov variation 4…Nbd7 5.Qe2 do we do when black just plays e6 and doesn’t take the queen?
In the Caro-Kann Tartakower Bg4 ideas are also quite common. Like for example; 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ exf6 6. Be3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Ne2 Re8 9. O-O Bg4
Bg4 ideas in the Caro-Kann Tartakower are also quite common like 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ exf6 6. Be3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Ne2 Re8 9. O-O Bg4