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chess noob Quick Wins! is a series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

This was a game of bullet submitted by an Indian subscriber @Zunayed_781038 who got a rather delicious checkmate in the Alien Gambit in 10-moves, using the same knight + bishop checkmate pattern we saw in the quick wins from last week. I thought that this game was a great contrast in conceptual approach to a quick win, compared to the previous game. In that game, my subscriber played a solid opening but then pounced on their opponent’s mistakes. In this game, we see how one can play deliberate suboptimal moves as traps to coax the opponent into making devastating mistakes!

The Alien Gambit has recently gone vial in chess social media and has been promoted by Bulgarian CM Volen Dyulgerov, also known as @Witty_Alien. 👽 It starts with White playing into the Caro-Kann Defense, but then playing a speculative and tricky “knight attack” – (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Ng5!?). Interestingly, the first serious games in the masters database that I could find of this variation was by future Russian GM Evgeni Vasiukov (1933-2018) who played it twice in a tournament in 1957. He was awarded his grandmaster title in 1961.

The attack plan of the Alien Gambit, however, is to sacrifice the knight on f7 (6. Nxf7!?) after Black responds with (5… h6), which is the most accurate and the most frequently played move in the position. This specific variant has largely only existed in competitive databases from rated online blitz from the last decade, though there are a few exceptions! The earliest game was all the way back in 1988 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA, played by Dave Penkalski, (Penkalski—Gomez, 1988, Milwaukee USA) who I think might be @Jaegernaut, though he last played online in 2016.

The knight sacrifice draws the Black king onto the f7 square. It is a “mistake” by White to play this according to the engine, but Black’s king has now lost the right to castle and is potentially exposed. In this game of bullet, Black blunders almost immediately with their rapid heuristic moves. White develops their king’s knight (7. Nf3) and Black’s pin with their bishop (7… Bg4??) is a blunder as White immediately has an unpin tactic with an absolute fork of the king and bishop (8. Ne5+!).

White, rather than scooping up the nice advantage with a sensible (Nxg4), capturing Black’s bishop, opted to play another very tricky move, an “oh no, my queen!” trap with (9. Bc4!?). One can imagine Black’s emotional rollercoaster – from looking like they are winning to losing to winning, with the game having only progressed a total of 15 seconds! Black greedily captures White’s “hanging” queen (9… Bxd1??), and White ends the game with (10. Bf7#), a lovely knight and bishop checkmate at the beginning of the game. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/107098965697

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2024.04.17"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Zunayed_781038"]
[Black "FM-LiamGrobotek"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "rn1qkb1r/pp2pBp1/2p2n1p/4N3/3P4/8/PPP2PPP/R1BbK2R b KQ -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B15"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Caro-Kann-Defense-Alien-Gambit"]
[UTCDate "2024.04.17"]
[UTCTime "13:22:53"]
[WhiteElo "1118"]
[BlackElo "1308"]
[TimeControl "60"]
[Termination "Zunayed_781038 won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "13:22:53"]
[EndDate "2024.04.17"]
[EndTime "13:23:15"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/107098965697"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/307626899.f3a7365b.50x50o.d2456d042351.png"]
[WhiteCountry "69"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/351412625.0789729e.50x50o.b0e4ce320d26.webp"]
[BlackCountry "116"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 {[%clk 0:00:59.7]} 1... c6 {[%clk 0:00:58.9]} 2. d4 {[%clk 0:00:59.3]}
2... d5 {[%clk 0:00:58.4]} 3. Nd2 {[%clk 0:00:59]} 3... dxe4 {[%clk 0:00:57.5]}
4. Nxe4 {[%clk 0:00:58.9]} 4... Nf6 {[%clk 0:00:57.1]} 5. Ng5 $5 {[%clk
0:00:58.6][%c_effect g5;square;g5;type;Interesting;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e4f6;keyPressed;none;from;e4;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f6;keyPressed;shift;opacity;0.8;square;f6;persistent;false] Caro-Kann Defense:
Alien Gambit $1 👽 A rather tricky line that has recently gone viral $1 [-0.3]} 5...
h6 {[%clk 0:00:56.5]} 6. Nxf7 $5 {[%clk 0:00:57.9][%c_effect
f7;square;f7;type;Interesting;persistent;true] The knight sacrifices itself on
the f7 square and the game is now afoot $1 [-2]} 6... Kxf7 {[%clk 0:00:56.4]} 7.
Nf3 {[%clk 0:00:56.7]} 7... Bg4 $4 {[%clk 0:00:54.8][%c_effect
g4;square;g4;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_highlight
g4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g4;persistent;false] And in this weird
position, Black's heuristic play results in a blunder $1 [-2 $37 +3.7]} 8. Ne5+ $1
{[%clk 0:00:54.5][%c_arrow
e5f7;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false,e5g4;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;g4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false,g4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g4;persistent;false,e5;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;e5;persistent;false][%c_effect
e5;square;e5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true] Unpin with check $1} 8... Ke8 {[%clk
0:00:52.9]} 9. Bc4 $5 {[%clk 0:00:53.7][%c_effect
c4;square;c4;type;Interesting;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e5g4;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;g4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g4;persistent;false] White, rather than
playing the obvious capture, attempts another speculative tricky move, an \"oh
no my queen $1\" trap, threatening a checkmate pattern with knight and bishop that
can be difficult to see... [-2.2]} 9... Bxd1 $4 {[%clk 0:00:51.5][%c_effect
d1;square;d1;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_highlight
d1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d1;persistent;false] Black couldn't resist
the material...} 10. Bf7# {[%clk 0:00:52.2][%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow
f7e8;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;e8;persistent;false,e5f7;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;f7;persistent;false,e5d7;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;d7;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e8;persistent;false,f7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f7;persistent;false,d7;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d7;persistent;false]
GG $1} 1-0