Raven Sturt’s Electrifying 1.e4 e5 Repertoire – Vol. 1 PGN Only May 04, 2026

Make Your Opponent Play Below Their True Level
with These Novel 1.e4 e5 Structures

The problem with building an opening repertoire is that you often don’t even get to use it. What good is your preparation if your opponent sidesteps it before you ever reach your positions?

GM Raven Sturt has found a way to solve that problem and reliably get you into your positions:

⚡️ Surprise your opponent before move 5, without taking unnecessary risks
⚡️ Guide the game into novel structures you understand better than they do

Part 1 of his 2-volume 1.e4 e5 repertoire shows you how to do it with the Ruy Lopez and the Italian in 833 thoroughly annotated lines.

The repertoire leads to electrifying attacking chess where your opponents are far more likely to underperform in unusual structures.

Bird’s Defense vs. Ruy Lopez

The Bird’s Defense against the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4) sets the stage perfectly for your goals:

The Bird’s Defense against the Ruy Lopez

This is already an unorthodox approach, but from here you take even rarer routes to dive into bizarre structures:

Most players have never seen this structure.

It may look strange at first, but it’s all part of the plan: you swing the rook across and launch an attack, while White struggles to develop against your structure.

Some of White’s simplest developing moves can backfire, triggering an attack which you won’t hesitate to sacrifice material for:

Countless attacking options for Black,
zero counterplay for White, despite being an exchange up.

Some lines may seem risky, and Raven is transparent about that. But even if White finds a series of best moves, +0.3 is as good as it gets for them.

An Unexplored Approach vs. the Italian

Things get equally wild in the Italian. Starting from the Two Knights Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6), some resulting positions can look like this:

Quadruple pawns after both sides played logical moves!

How do you get there? Simple: play a line so rare it’s barely in the database:

Played 0 times in the OTB database.

Raven calls this the Taunt of Destiny, because this “waste of tempo” often provokes opponents into lunging forward with Ng5. From there, things turn sharp, with plenty of pitfalls waiting for White:

Black will win either the knight or bishop at the end.

If White chooses a more dynamic approach with the Fried Liver Attack, you’ll shut down their usual plans by playing two rarities in a row: