Vaporize the Caro-Kann Alien Gambit by CM Volen Dyulgerov Video + PGN HQ Apr 04, 2025

Invade Your Opponent’s World With the Alien Gambit

Let’s get right down to it – you’re going to be sacrificing a piece on move 6!

The Alien Gambit starts after the moves:
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Ng5 h6!? 6.Nxf7!

You might have some questions after looking at this position such as:

👽 Is this really sound? No.
👽 Am I getting that piece back? No.
👽 Does the engine approve? No!

However, Candidate Master Volen Dyulgerov’s favorite opening is an excellent way to drag Caro-Kann players away from their safe and solid comfort zone. He hopes to convince you that this shocking sacrifice is very playable from a practical perspective. And, along the way, you’ll learn how to use the initiative and Black’s weak king to whip up devastating attacks. Dyulgerov popularized and coined the name for this daring opening, so you can rest assured all the instruction in this course is coming from the source.

So, the first point is that Black’s king will never find safety. This is a long-term sacrifice, which exploits the fact that the king just has nowhere to run. It’s too far from the queenside and h6 has fatally weakened the light squares. And the f7-pawn is long gone.

This long-term weakness on the light squares isn’t something that can be fixed and the arising positions are a great example of how you should play when you’re down material.

You’ll have to learn to play with maximum aggression to maintain your attack, and you can’t be scared to sacrifice further material. In 2024, super-GM Dmitry Andreikin found himself on the wrong side of this gambit in a bullet game.

In true Alien Gambit style, White sacrificed a second piece and won quickly

Does the engine approve of the Alien Gambit? No, not at all!

But chess is a practical game and your opponent (ideally) won’t be using an engine. The compensation comes from Black being forced to solve difficult, non-standard problems, where one wrong move can lose them the game. Meanwhile, you’ll be confidently charging forward, knowing that you’re always going to get excellent attacking chances.

Against the Bf5 move order, you’ll learn a new, but similar way to play – the Martian Gambit.

The Martian Gambit starts after the moves:
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng5 Bg6 6.N1f3 h6 then 7.Ne6!

In the Martian Gambit, you’ll still sacrifice a piece but the reasons are slightly different. In this position Black really struggles to develop their kingside, with the dark-squared bishop and h8-rook finding it almost impossible to get out of the corner.

In both gambits, the author explains his Five Lifelines to playing these positions. They’re handy rules of thumb that’ll guide you through the inevitable chaos.

Sidelines like the Gurgenidze and Karpov’s 4…Nd7 are covered too, showing you take the game away from everyday, earthly positions and into space. And a bonus Extraterrestrial Gambits chapter shows some fascinating ideas against the French, Sicilian and Scandinavian.

Witty_Alien is a Candidate Master from Bulgaria. He has over 120,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, where he regularly posts instructional content. He is the world’s leading promoter of the Alien Gambit and has defeated many strong players with it. It’s his favorite opening and he hopes to inspire that joy in you too.