Alien Gambit

The Alien Gambit arises from the 4...Nf6 5. Ng5 line of the Caro-Kann Defense. After 5...h6, White does not retreat the knight and plays 6. Nxf7, giving a piece for a pawn. The name comes from the YouTuber Witty Alien, who popularized it. The sacrifice pulls the king to f7 with 6...Kxf7, the reply in nearly every game. Black loses the right to castle and is left with holes on e6 and g6 that White's pieces try to use. It also forces the tactical play that many Caro-Kann players prefer to avoid.

Engines give Black a large advantage, and the gambit appears mainly in bullet and blitz. White nevertheless scores well in the Lichess database, because the defense is easy to get wrong. After 7. Nf3, the common 7...Bg4 is a blunder: 8. Ne5 wins the piece back and keeps a strong attack on the light squares. Black has two sound plans. One is to hit White's dark squares with ...c5 and ...Nc6. The other is to cover the light squares with ...Be6 and ...Nbd7 before counterattacking. The two plans can be combined.