Witty Alien and Magnus Carlsen: the rematch | Image: Witty Alien / YouTube
A little over five weeks ago, Magnus Carlsen lost a game of blitz to a content creator and the whole chess world talked about it. On the 30th of September, Volen Dyulgerov, known to everyone online as Witty Alien, beat Magnus with the black pieces in the Chess.com Club Showdown. Magnus had a winning position, played 20.Rde1?? and had to resign two moves later. We wrote about it here. Witty's celebration became more famous than the game.
September 30: Magnus resigns, Witty screams | Frame: Witty Alien / Twitch
Witty is a Candidate Master from Bulgaria, 27 years old, rated 2181 on the FIDE list and somewhere between 2500 and 2700 on Chess.com depending on the time control. Over the board that is a decently strong player. Online, with a camera on and five minutes on the clock, he is something else. He is also the man who gave the world the Alien Gambit, which he started playing because he was tired of taking on f6 in the Caro-Kann and wanted chaos instead.
Witty Alien, Chess.com's Creator of the Month in July 2024 | Image: Chess.com
Before September, the two had met three times on Chess.com, all one-minute bullet, and Magnus had won all three. Then came the Showdown game. So the score stood at 3-1 for Magnus, with the one everybody remembers belonging to Witty.
"Can you please play the Caro-Kann?"
The occasion was a charity stream for UNICEF on Saturday the 7th of November. Team Liquid, the esports organisation Magnus plays for, put him on his own Twitch channel against eight content creators and four viewers who had donated for the chance. Witty was one of the eight. Five minutes each, no increment, a normal Chess.com live game, which in India meant 1 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Magnus Carlsen arriving for the Global Chess League 2026 | Photo: Amruta Mokal
In September, Witty had Black. This time he had White, and he had a request. "The God Magnus, can you please play Caro-Kann?" Magnus: "Sure. I know what's coming." Witty then asked whether he could scream just once when he played the Alien Gambit. Rachel Burak, the streamer hosting the evening with Magnus, told him they would mute him.
So Magnus, who could have played anything, answered 1.e4 with 1...c6. After 5.Ng5 he even said, "That's kind of a weird move. I think he's probably just going to retreat the knight if I play h6!"
Witty Alien vs Magnus Carlsen
The Alien Gambit on the board: 6.Nxf7 against the world number one
Here it is: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Ng5 h6 6.Nxf7. The Alien Gambit, on the board against the strongest player in the world. Witty's Chess.com blitz rating that night was 2538. Magnus's was 3375. A knight for a pawn, and the black king has to come to f7. The engine says Black is simply better, around two pawns' worth. But the engine is not the one sitting with five minutes on the clock and a thousand people watching. Magnus took the knight and started developing: ...Nbd7, ...e6, ...Bd6, ...Nf8, the king back to g8. Sensible, calm chess. By move 16 he had everything in place and the extra piece.
Magnus's own view of the gambit, given while he was playing it: "It's very unpleasant to face. You're a piece up, but there's enduring positional compensation. So it's not one of those gambits that you just consolidate quickly. You know that your position is better, but there's always a bit of counterplay and it's never easy." He also said the structure reminded him of a Topalov vs Kramnik, with a knight sacrifice on f7.
And then something happened that I did not expect to write.
Witty has just played 17.Bf5. Black to move: what would you play?
Magnus played 17...Bg6?, the most natural move on the board. It walks into 18.Nh4! The bishop on g6 has nowhere good to go, so Magnus traded on f5, 18...Bxf5 19.Nxf5, and look at that knight. It sits on f5, eyes the bishop on d6 and the g7 pawn, and the white queen is coming to f3. For the next few moves, White was better. Yes, Witty Alien was better against Magnus Carlsen, as White, in the Alien Gambit. The move Magnus needed was 17...Qc7, keeping the bishop on h5 and the knight out of h4. After the game Magnus did not hide it: "Bishop g6, I completely missed knight h4, and that was a really bad move."
Then came the moment of the game.
Magnus has just played 20...Qd7, after a 35-second think. White to play. Hint: the e6 square
21.Re6!! The rook cannot be taken for free. If 21...Nxe6 22.dxe6, the queen on d7 is attacked, and after 22...Qxe6 23.Qxa8+ White picks up the rook on a8 and is an exchange up. And the rook on e6 is exerting pressure on d6 and f6. It is not a forced win, but it is a clearly better position with every white piece near the black king, and it is beautiful.
Witty did not find this amazing resource and instead played 21.Re2. The funny thing is that Magnus had seen the sacrifice. "Rook e6 was really good," he told Witty afterwards. Witty, in his own analysis later: "Magnus Carlsen saw this move during the game. I didn't. I just completely forgot that the rook on a8 is hanging." Two moves later he found the idea, 23.Re6, but by then Magnus had an answer.
After 23.Re6: the idea arrives two moves late
Witty has just played 23.Re6, two moves too late. Magnus replied 23...Nxd5! and after 24.Rxd6 Rxd6 25.Nxd6 Qxf3 26.gxf3 Witty had gotten back the piece, but the endgame against Magnus is never easy!
The scramble
Before the game, Witty's chat had given him one piece of advice: don't get to an endgame. He got to an endgame. This is where Magnus is Magnus. With 45 seconds against 43, he did what he does in every bullet game you have seen him play: he kept the knights jumping and let his opponent's clock do the rest.
After 36...Nd4. Witty had 19 seconds left
Magnus has just played 36...Nd4. Witty, with 19 seconds left, took it: 37.Bxd4 cxd4. The pawn that landed on d4 could not be stopped. It went to d3, Magnus picked up the h3 pawn with a knight, then pushed his own h-pawn all the way to h2, and Witty's knight had to go to h1 to stop it.
The final position: mate in four. Witty resigned with six seconds on the clock
The final position. Magnus has already queened once, the h2 pawn is about to become his second queen, and it is mate in four. Witty resigned with six seconds on his clock. Magnus had twelve.
"Magnus, you're still strong. GG. Thanks so much for the game. It was such an honour," said Witty. Magnus: "That was a very tough game."
Play through the whole game with the replayer below.
Should you play the Alien Gambit?
The gambit is not sound. Everyone knows it, Witty knows it, and the engine shouts it from move six. It does not matter. In five-minute chess what matters is whether your opponent has to find only moves while his clock runs, and for several moves Magnus did. One natural move, 17...Bg6, and the world number one was worse. That is the whole case for playing openings like this at club level, and Witty's own description of how he plays it is worth remembering: "I'm a full piece down, but I'm going for the positional bind. I know that if I try to attack to checkmate, I won't be able to."
The score between them on Chess.com is now 4-1 for Magnus. I have a feeling we have not seen the last of this pairing.
Watch the game
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