The Secret of Chess

[Tibono]

How much does it cost ?
I find no price so far - even on the buy now page!

20 euro full price.

will change some things on the site in a short while, first want to get some feedback.

PS. more inquisitive visitors would probably try the buy now button, see what paypal wants to charge them, and if happy with the price, proceed, otherwise go back, but probably this is not a good option from user point point of view.

I will have to rethink a lot of concepts on the go.

Reasonnable price regarding the effort you obviously have put in it, Lyudmil. Indeed I decided to buy too, after having read the excerpts and this thread.

As I am not much used to buying with Paypal I point out I was initially reluctant to step forward your "buy now" page as it led to Paypal page requesting my credentials to pay - up to this step I did not know how much I would be charged and did not know if entering my credentials would validate the buying or not. Once logged in as a Paypal user the price is shown and confirmation to buy requested, as you described above, so no problem in the end... Proceed or go back is definitely not a good option as some (like myself) will not proceed far enough and cancel the "buy now" process, a bit frightened to proceed with an unknown price. I would recommend either to announce the price in your buy-book page or to rename (or comment) your "buy now" button as "check the price with Paypal" or something similar less frightening.

Second remark: Paypal page after payment showed a message similar to "delivery address" followed by my postal address associated to my Paypal account. I assume this is wrong and book to be downloaded as e-book. In addition the same Paypal page ended with a link "back to vendor site" (not sure this was the exact label, but very close to this) and it seemed totally optional and I initially did not use it (went to my mailbox also associated with my Paypal account to check potential message including a download link). Hopefully I did not close the Paypal browser tab and when I wanted to access your site again I used this link... it opened the book pdf file! I saved it and this is how I got it; happy end, but too unclear a process. Again I would recommend to announce within your buy-book page how to get the book once Paypal payment done.

A last comment if I may (I apologize for the loooong post): your site is in English (fine) but the site title is in Russian (<title>&#1053;&#1072;&#1095;&#1072;&#1083;&#1085;&#1072; &#1089;&#1090;&#1088;&#1072;&#1085;&#1080;&#1094;&#1072;</title>).
I have no personal issue with Russian language (except I cannot read it ) but it is not consistent and talking about a seller website it may again frighten potential buyers not knowing much of you as we can as forum readers. Many will be cautious before buying thru internet, so your website needs to be crystal clear.

Hope this helps,
Tibono

[PK]

Is there a way to buy this book by transferirng money to a normal bank account, not via PayPal?

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

How much does it cost ?
I find no price so far - even on the buy now page!

20 euro full price.

will change some things on the site in a short while, first want to get some feedback.

PS. more inquisitive visitors would probably try the buy now button, see what paypal wants to charge them, and if happy with the price, proceed, otherwise go back, but probably this is not a good option from user point point of view.

I will have to rethink a lot of concepts on the go.

Reasonnable price regarding the effort you obviously have put in it, Lyudmil. Indeed I decided to buy too, after having read the excerpts and this thread.

As I am not much used to buying with Paypal I point out I was initially reluctant to step forward your "buy now" page as it led to Paypal page requesting my credentials to pay - up to this step I did not know how much I would be charged and did not know if entering my credentials would validate the buying or not. Once logged in as a Paypal user the price is shown and confirmation to buy requested, as you described above, so no problem in the end... Proceed or go back is definitely not a good option as some (like myself) will not proceed far enough and cancel the "buy now" process, a bit frightened to proceed with an unknown price. I would recommend either to announce the price in your buy-book page or to rename (or comment) your "buy now" button as "check the price with Paypal" or something similar less frightening.

Second remark: Paypal page after payment showed a message similar to "delivery address" followed by my postal address associated to my Paypal account. I assume this is wrong and book to be downloaded as e-book. In addition the same Paypal page ended with a link "back to vendor site" (not sure this was the exact label, but very close to this) and it seemed totally optional and I initially did not use it (went to my mailbox also associated with my Paypal account to check potential message including a download link). Hopefully I did not close the Paypal browser tab and when I wanted to access your site again I used this link... it opened the book pdf file! I saved it and this is how I got it; happy end, but too unclear a process. Again I would recommend to announce within your buy-book page how to get the book once Paypal payment done.

A last comment if I may (I apologize for the loooong post): your site is in English (fine) but the site title is in Russian (<title>&#1053;&#1072;&#1095;&#1072;&#1083;&#1085;&#1072; &#1089;&#1090;&#1088;&#1072;&#1085;&#1080;&#1094;&#1072;</title>).
I have no personal issue with Russian language (except I cannot read it ) but it is not consistent and talking about a seller website it may again frighten potential buyers not knowing much of you as we can as forum readers. Many will be cautious before buying thru internet, so your website needs to be crystal clear.

Hope this helps,
Tibono

many thanks, Eric!

extremely precious feedback.

one should go through a hell of a lot of difficulties until one downloads the file and gets access to the knowledge within.

joking apart, I promise to take all of your, as well as other users' feedback, to change the site appropriately.

I will do this in a short while, I wanted to allow a week or so for feedback, so I don't rush through things.

does not paypal accept credit and debits cards? they state they do.

again, thousand thanks for the feedback.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Is there a way to buy this book by transferirng money to a normal bank account, not via PayPal?

hi Pawel.

thanks for the interest.

paypal, as far as I know, should accept credit and debit cards.
can anyone confirm that payment with credit/debit card via paypal works?

if there are users wanting to transfer the normal way, via direct transfer to bank account(is that normal, Pawel? ), then I should probably add my bank account on the site for direct transfers.

too many new things for me, Pawel, so I am very careful when proceeding.

[cdani]

... then I should probably add my bank account on the site for direct transfers.

Or give it only to known people, or create a new bank account separated and give it for if...

[Rodolfo Leoni]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

How things are doing, friend?

(and that means... up!)

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Hello everyone.

I wrote a new book, titled 'The Secret of Chess'.

It is available for a modest charge here: http://www.secretofchess.com

I would have offered the book free to everyone on this forum, but, unfortunately, I had to leave my job couple of years ago, to be able to fully concentrate on chess.

So, my only alternative to trying to sell a few copies would be to go taxi-driving. (In Bulgaria, most educated people drive taxis)

More about the book and some excerpts on the above site.

PS. If anyone buys, please advise if things work, I am doing this for the first time.

How things are doing, friend?

(and that means... up!)

going after the first dozen, still about half way through.

I guess, by the end of 2020, I will have sold some 100 copies or so...

one should not write books, that are too advanced, or for an audience that is too unadvanced.

that is still fine, one thing I can not explain myself however, is why there is zero(0, 0.0) interest on the part of SF, I even offered them some free copies, but they don't want those either...

at the same time, it is claimed they want to improve their engine.
that is something I simply can not undertstand.

[jefk]

the terms have also been widely checked on games with SF and Komodo.I wonder why SF team is not interested in the knowledge present in the book, any guesses? There is a lot for them to learn within, and consequently, improve SF.

well i'm not part of the SF team, but anyway, besides having such (often new) positional eval terms, the relative importance is importance. The best way to find that out for computer chess would be automatic tuning i guess.
Whereby your subjective ideas sometimes seem to be a bit exaggerated is my impression (eg. when you claimed some Benoni positions are a win for Black).

For the rest i presume you also have looked at some other (sometimes rather sophisticated) books about positional evaluation ? NB they also often are not
really geared toward programming in an engine, the rather being a rather delicate process i suspect if you want a really high (Elo) ranking.

[Rodolfo Leoni]

......................................
one should not write books, that are too advanced,.............................

To write chess book isn't a great business. People has a lot of more urgent problems than chess in these days. But, maybe, you could try to "enlarge" your audience, with an easier book. If you lower the difficulty level, you could find more people interested to it. Not here, of course, but amongst "common mortals".

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

the terms have also been widely checked on games with SF and Komodo.I wonder why SF team is not interested in the knowledge present in the book, any guesses? There is a lot for them to learn within, and consequently, improve SF.

well i'm not part of the SF team, but anyway, besides having such (often new) positional eval terms, the relative importance is importance. The best way to find that out for computer chess would be automatic tuning i guess.
Whereby your subjective ideas sometimes seem to be a bit exaggerated is my impression (eg. when you claimed some Benoni positions are a win for Black).

For the rest i presume you also have looked at some other (sometimes rather sophisticated) books about positional evaluation ? NB they also often are not
really geared toward programming in an engine, the rather being a rather delicate process i suspect if you want a really high (Elo) ranking.

never said Benoni wins for black, you are misreading something.
I said the Chech Benoni, with a couple of improvements, i.e. Ne7 instead of Nf6, early g6, etc., is the easiest way for black to attain full equality after 1.d4

I have not looked at any other books, as I don't know where to look. I try to forget even the things I have read, as this will have a negative impact on my thinking.

my biggest advantage is that I know nothing about the topic I am writing about, so I start on a clear head.

was not it you who asked me when I will release my evaluation update?
well, now it is ready, but you are unhappy again.

I don't know how imprecise my ideas are, all I know is SF and Komodo would agree with my suggested moves all too often in an analysis session, and I am able to find these moves by the sheer force of evaluation.