Gambit Buster Review: The 60-Second Verdict
Selim Çitak’s Chessable course began as a gambit course and grew into a complete 1…e5 repertoire for Black. That origin still shapes it. More than a quarter of the video time goes to gambits, another fifth to the odd second and third moves that club players love, and the main lines — Four Knights, Scotch, Italian and Spanish — get just under six hours. On top of that sit two quickstarters and a three-hour model-games session. The result is one of the widest 1.e4 e5 packages we have reviewed, delivered by a coach who explains ideas in a calm, classical way rather than chasing engine novelties.
Structure and depth earn nines: the chapter titles tell you exactly how many trainable lines each one holds, and almost nothing a White player can try after 1.e4 e5 is missing. Practice value loses a point because of sheer size — you will rarely meet some of the rarest second moves — and study files lose one because everything sits in a single combined PGN rather than one file per chapter. Still, as this Gambit Buster review shows below, the course is easy to cut into smaller, goal-based paths. For other Black repertoires, browse our chess courses list.
Meet the Coach
- FIDE Master from Turkey who calls himself “a player, author, trainer” (introduction)
- Gambit Buster is his second Chessable course, after one on the b3 Sicilian (introduction)
- Raised in the classical school and a 1…e5 player for most of his career (introduction)
- Attended a children’s training camp run by the Soviet master Evgeny Vasyukov (Spanish chapter)
The Vasyukov memory is more than an anecdote. Çitak recalls the master telling the children that to learn chess you should learn two openings, the Queen’s Gambit and the Spanish, and making them study classical Spanish games for most of the camp. You can hear that school in the course: he prefers central pawns, normal development and what he calls “ABC chess” whenever White allows it, and he keeps reminding you that a sound position matters more than a forced line.
How to Get the Course
How 21 Hours Are Divided
The product page lists all 27 files in chapter order. For this Gambit Buster review, a more useful question for buyers is what kind of opening the time is spent on. We sorted every chapter into five groups — starter videos, gambits, other sidelines, main lines and model games — and added up the real runtimes. The split confirms the course’s identity: gambits and main lines get almost equal weight, and the sidelines are covered far more thoroughly than in most repertoires.
Across all those chapters the coach applies one consistent decision process, which is worth knowing before you start:
Worked Example: One Setup Against the Center Game
To test the method we followed the Center Game chapter, one of the longest at 58 minutes. After 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 White’s queen has to choose a square, and Çitak’s point is that Black barely needs to care which one.
- Understand the trade. White loses a tempo with the queen but gains the option of long castling and keeps a central pawn on e4. Opposite-side castling and a race of flank attacks are the usual result.
- Use one pattern. Wherever the queen goes, Black plays …Nf6, pins with …Bb4, castles short, brings the rook to e8 and looks for …d5. The weakest retreat, 4.Qd1, is treated as a very poor Scandinavian with colours reversed.
- Adapt to 4.Qc4. After 4.Qc4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Bd2 O-O 7.O-O-O Re8 8.f3 the e4-pawn is protected and …d5 is not easy. So the plan changes.
- Switch wings. With White’s king on the queenside, Black prepares …d6, gains a tempo on the c4-queen with …Be6 and pushes the a-pawn — attacking where the white king lives before White’s g4 and h4 arrive.
- Take the lesson. A second-rate opening does not need a refutation; it needs a reliable setup plus the flexibility to change plans when White closes the centre.
Owners of Friedel’s course will recognise the skeleton: his Part 1 meets the 4.Qe3 Center Game with the same …Nf6, …Bb4 and …Re8 pressure. The two courses reach similar conclusions by different routes, which is a good sign that the setup is sound.
Second Example: The Quiet g3 System
The 27-minute g3 chapter shows a different side of the course: how to handle a slow system where nothing is forced. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 (a line the coach links to the old master Jacques Mieses) Black takes the centre with 3…d5 4.exd5 Nxd5 5.Bg2. Çitak warns against the natural-looking …Be6, which overplays the position, and steers Black towards a structure with fewer pawn islands than White.
The instructive details come next. Black places the bishop on c5 so that it can drop to b6 and neutralise White’s typical Rb1 and Bg2 pressure on the b-file. And when White unpins with Qe1, hitting e5, the right reply is …f6, which guards the pawn and takes g5 away from the knight — not …Re8, which lets White gain a small but annoying light-square edge with Qe4 and Ng5. As he puts it: “why fall for this small positional trap if you know the antidote?” It is a five-minute idea that saves real points in practice, and a good example of what this Gambit Buster review means by practical value.
The Index, Turned Into Study Paths
With 27 videos, a straight day-by-day plan would be overwhelming, and the file list is already on the course page. Instead, this Gambit Buster review turns the index into five goal-based paths built from the real runtimes. Start with the path that matches your biggest problem; the PGN lets you drill each block on the board or in a trainer afterwards.
| Goal | Watch | Video time | Then do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready for this weekend | Introduction + both quickstarters | 2:16 | Drill the quickstarter lines from the PGN |
| Gambits keep beating me | Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18, 19 | 5:37 | One gambit per evening, then blitz games with Black |
| Strange second moves | Chapters 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 | 4:10 | Write down the one setup you use against each |
| A main-line backbone | Chapters 12–15 and 20–23 | 5:56 | Compare your old repertoire move by move |
| Middlegame feel | Chapter 24, model games | 3:08 | Pause before each key move and guess the plan |
1.e4 e5 · Black · Complete repertoire
FM Selim Çitak — Gambit Buster: 1.e4 e5
Twenty-seven videos over 21 hours: introduction, two quickstarters, 23 theory chapters from the Falkbeer to the Spanish 4.c3, a model-games session and one complete course PGN. The verified file index is on the product page.
Test Yourself: Five Gambit Buster Questions
A useful Gambit Buster review should help you judge your level. These questions come from the chapters described above; tap each one to reveal the answer.
1. Why does the coach call 4.Qd1 in the Center Game not a serious move?
2. In the Center Game with White castled long and the queen on c4, what is Black’s main plan?
3. In the g3 system, why does the bishop go to c5 and later b6?
4. When White plays Qe1 against e5 in the g3 system, which reply avoids the positional trap?
5. Which two openings did Evgeny Vasyukov tell young players to learn first?
Gambit Buster Review: Strengths and Gaps
Chapter titles you can plan with
Every theory chapter’s file name states how many trainable variations it contains and their average trainable depth — from 8 lines in the Ponziani and g3 chapters to 26 in the Vienna Gambit. That makes it easy to see where the work is before you press play, and it is one reason the structure score is so high.
Model games with a story
The three-hour model-games chapter is more than a highlight reel. One of its best stretches is Motylev–Carlsen (Wijk aan Zee 2007): after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.Ba4 the future world champion played 5…Bc5, giving up the e5-pawn for development. Çitak traces the idea back to a 1993 game by an old Turkish master he names as Yakub Bayram, a line Raymond Keene nicknamed the “Turkish Delight”. Jobava–Mamedyarov from the 2013 European Championship in Warsaw then shows the Vienna Gambit at full speed. For this Gambit Buster review, those games did what model games should: they made the earlier chapters feel alive.
Realistic expectations
Çitak never sells a gambit refutation that does not exist. In one Center Game sideline he admits that Black ends up with only an extra pawn in an endgame that will be hard to convert, and he explains why: the first move is worth something, so White can experiment without being destroyed. That honesty makes his recommendations easier to trust.
Where the size works against you
Twenty-one hours is a lot, and the model-games session is one three-hour file. Several chapters cover openings you may meet once a year. The Spanish is handled with the 3…g6 fianchetto rather than the main …a6 lines, so if you want classical Ruy Lopez theory you will need another source. Players who prefer a shorter repertoire built on …Nf6 should look at Friedel’s Part 1 and Part 2.
Which 1.e4 e5 Repertoire Fits You?
Here is how Gambit Buster compares with other 1…e5 options in the store. Each link opens the product page with its full file list.
| If you need… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Every White second move, gambits first, in one package | Çitak — Gambit Buster: 1.e4 e5 |
| A compact …Nf6 answer to the gambits and sidelines | Friedel — 1.e4 e5 Repertoire, Part 1 |
| The Four Knights, Scotch, Fried Liver and Italian with …Nf6 | Friedel — 1.e4 e5 Repertoire, Part 2 |
| More open games built around …Bc5 | Collins — Open Games with …Bc5 |
| A 1.e4 e5 repertoire from the Lifetime Repertoires series | Gustafsson — Lifetime Repertoires: 1.e4 e5 |
| The Evans Gambit from White’s side | Martin — ABC of the Evans Gambit |
- Answers every White second move after 1.e4 e5
- Gambits get more than five and a half hours on their own
- Variation counts and depth printed in every chapter title
- Calm and combative branches offered in key lines
- Nine model games tie the openings to middlegame plans
- Very large time investment
- Single combined PGN, not one per chapter
- Some rare sidelines are unlikely to appear in your games
- No classical …a6 Ruy Lopez coverage
FAQ
Is this Gambit Buster review based on the actual course files?
Yes. Runtimes come from the 27 video files, variation counts from the chapter titles, and every example and quote from the lesson transcripts.
Do I have to watch all 21 hours?
No. Start with the introduction and quickstarters (2h 16m), then follow the study path that matches the openings you meet most.
Is it only about gambits?
No. Gambits are the focus, but the course also covers the Four Knights, Scotch, Italian and Spanish main lines.
How is the course delivered?
Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.
Our Gambit Buster review ends with a clear recommendation for one kind of player: the 1…e5 player who is tired of losing to gambits and wants a single, complete answer. Çitak combines wide coverage with a steady classical approach, honest evaluations and a model-games session that connects openings to plans. At 8.5 out of 10 it is the broadest 1…e5 package we have reviewed so far, provided you use the study paths rather than trying to absorb it all at once.
Get it through Courses On Budget, and check the coupons page before checkout.
Browse the category: Chess Courses · Chess Courses Cheap List
New releases: Courses On Budget updates
External resource: chessable.com (official course page)
Opening background: Center Game on Wikipedia
Recommended course stack:
