Magnus Carlsen loses a game of blitz and the chess world pays attention. When the man who beat him is a content creator rated 2612 on Chess.com against Magnus's 3396, it is more than attention. On September 30, Volen Dyulgerov, known as Witty Alien, did exactly that.
Dyulgerov is a Candidate Master from Bulgaria, born in 1999. His FIDE rating peaked at 2200, which he first reached in September 2023, and it stands at 2181 in the September 2026 list, where he is marked inactive. Over the board he is a decent player. Online he is something else. He is one of the growing and popular content creators in chess, with a YouTube channel, and what people love is his energy. He brings excitement and enthusiasm to every game he plays and covers. Chess.com named him its Creator of the Month in July 2024 and credited him with the Alien Gambit.
The Chess Club Showdown
The game was played in the first Chess Club Showdown, organised by Chess.com. Nine club teams, from 151 to 1142 members each, played a two-hour arena of five-minute blitz. Amateur club members could be paired against stars such as Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri. The top two teams then played a head-to-head final, with 50 players from each side, in rating order.
Magnus played for Team Liquid Chess Club, which finished second in the arena with 2312 points. 9z Globant led with 2368 and went on to win the final 53.5-45.5. In that final, Magnus won his two games on board one. Magnus did not get through the day undefeated, because of his blunder against Dyulgerov.
The game:
Magnus got a winning position quite quickly in the opening and it felt like the game would be over pretty soon. But this is what happened next:
Magnus played 20.Rde1??, moving the rook from d1 to e1. It looks natural, doubling the rooks on the e-file, but after Rb1+ Kd2 Qd5+!
It's game over. Ke2 is met with Bc4+ and Ke3 by Rxe1+ Magnus resigned and Witty Alien scored his win over the legend!
