The Secret of Chess

[Henk]

If you play chess on amateur level there is no need to take chess seriously. So if you think a chess book can be fun to read you buy it.

Remember I won some chess games with white playing 1 a3 2. b4. With black it was far more difficult for you get a disadvantage.

[BrendanJNorman]

If you play chess on amateur level there is no need to take chess seriously.

Certainly true.

But there is also no reason not to take it seriously.

Every GM was once an amateur.

[Henk]

About magic powers. I remember Hans Bohm telling on television that his hobby was juggling or that he was interested in magic tricks.

He is or was also a chess journalist. So I think he is also right person for writing a review. But maybe he is too busy.

[Ovyron]

And the guy (KK) is only 2100 or so....similar level to Lyudmil, but without his magic powers.

KC is a Candidate Master so should at least be 2200 - I estimate +2250, and I think he'd easily destroy Lyudmil, though my perceptions are mostly based on Bullet and Superblitz...

Anyway, chess videos in general don't need production quality at all, I've compared amateur videos from people with something interesting to say, with those of "high quality production" of people that worry more about applying a Color Temperature filter on their webcam so the colors of their video match those of movie theaters than about the chess lines they analyze, and people seem to care more about the quality of the chess analysis itself than about the wrapping of the video, and it shows by thousands of views of difference.

In extreme cases people will complain that the board is too small, or that it shows black bars, or that they just hate the sounds of pieces moving, but those are easy to fix, and I have even seen chess videos with thousands of views with terribile audio that crackles and a cheap microphone could do better, but nobody complains because the actual chess content is good.

Chess needs no presentation.

In this case though, after spending some couple dozen hours reading old threads by Lyudmil, I'm concluding he's a scam, with some 85% certainty of sorts. At points I have no idea if he's trolling, or if he's insane, but he just makes some claims that are the exact opposite from reality.

Say, a chess position that is lost for black is posted, and all engines claim it's lost, and people on the forum agree that it's lost, yet Lyudmil will go on and claim that it's white that is winning and that engines don't know what they're talking about and that all forum members are missing the critical lines by Lyudmil.

When he shows these lines it turns out they are full of blunders by both sides, or they lead to positions where black clearly is still losing or Lyudmil was missing some variation because in some line he clearly didn't check with an engine at all, and when faced with this he'll backtrack and claim those lines don't matter, and it's THESE OTHER ONES that should be analyzed, but he runs into the same problems.

And then he'll give up claiming he's right but that he doesn't have time for this, or that it's just unfair for him to be defending his position against the entire forum alone.

People can check at home and see Lyudmil's analysis makes no sense, and conclude that either he's the perfect troll (his best ability is to gather people to attack his chess views), or there's some actual worrying problem if he actually believes what he says, and nothing will make him change his views to one that matches reality.

His "magic" is that he can look at a position for 10 seconds and in that time he'll be able to tell you who's winning, and why, and no matter how much time you spend analyzing the position deeply with the best engines or hardware, Lyudmil will have been ahead, and there will be no way to convince him otherwise.

I think this video of him beating Stockfish would be a miracle, unless he does as H.G.Muller suggests and fakes it, as I have seen evidence that he faked things for his book.

So what's the goal here? Increase Lyudmil's sales? Why? Isn't it better that people save their money instead of buying into the scam? Or should we just give him the benefit of the doubt until he provides the proof?

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

This type of thing needs irrefutable proof, and a video demonstration is a very convincing way to show something to people far away.

Well, I wonder if Lyudmil eats from the same soup that he serves...

The other day I saw him claiming that he had provided ideas that have made Stockfish stronger, and thus, that he had the rights to forbid people from using the engine, and he used it to tell some people that he didn't give them permission to use Stockfish, and that they should stop using it.

Well, in 2011 I suggested a change that gave +8 elo to Stockfish, I wonder what Lyudmil would say if I used the same ideas against him and didn't give him my permission to use the engine, that'd sure put a premature ending to his Youtube career!

Well, you are a troll indeed.
Why should people be always trolling my threads?
Where are the good people?

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

As far as I can tell, smooth scaling makes it weaker (sometimes significantly), but has a habit of suggesting interesting analysis moves. I put it in there mostly just because I could and it can be handy for analysis, but it for sure has a negative Elo value (which is why it's off by default). The parameters for it could be tuned a bit, maybe we can get something useful from it.

Is that your contribution?

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

You probably need to publish about 50-200 videos before you create a good one. First videos are usually crap unless you got talent.

Much work and once you start don't give up.

Are you speaking from experience? Or could we just take the word "probably" in your statement as meaning that you're guessing?

The guy isn't trying to get rich from adsense revenue (which requires VOLUME of videos).

He is trying to bring attention to a single book, build interest and direct traffic to an amazon landing page.

This is easier because the goal is already clear and each video can be directed around it and make mentions to passages in the book to build curiosity in the viewers.

He can also give away maybe 2 chapters for free via PDF, and place the link in the description of the videos.

A ton of people will grab it and those interested will purchase.

This is very basic direct response marketing strategy.

It is made MUCH MUCH easier by the fact that an obscure, middle-aged 2100 guy is outplaying Stockfish (3450Elo) live on camera.

An engine that even 2700 GMs recently said "I'd be happy to draw 1 game in 100 with Stockfish!"

If Lyudmil's claims are proven true, his videos will go viral overnight in the chess scene.

They'll be shared and sites like Chessbase will do articles on this amazing guy who "hacked" the computer chess algorithm.

And.... His book sales will soar.

Assuming he has this ability, a Youtube channel is a no-brainer.

All the negative thinking in the world won't change this fact.

If I could draw or beat Stockfish (any version!) at will, I'd be rich within a year - easily.

Unfortunately, I'm far too weak.

And back to Lyudmil...

Without concrete proof, everybody is going to see the reviews which Lyudmil didn't email strong players pleading for - which say things like this:

"Throughout the book, Lyudmil is trying to show how he plays better chess than Stockfish, an 3000+ ELO chess engine. We don't know if the games are real, in fact my Stockfish 8.0 don't agree the Stockfish moves in the book. Apparently, the games are fake - anybody with a laptop can make a PGN with some random moves, then change the player name to "Stockfish"."

The only way to overcome this skepticism is to play some live games against Stockfish and turn these non-believers (probably 99.9% of chessplayers) into believers.

And if Lyudmil indeed does this, proves existence of such an amazing talent, and silences the skeptics - there is no limit to what he can acheive.

It'll only take ONE or TWO videos to prove this, not 50-200.

What are you blabbering, Brendan, what reviews?
I have no official review like that, where did you get that from?
This is some scammer, spoofer or something.
Who has not read the book.
Because, PLEASE NOTE, there are NO games in 'The Secret of Chess', only patterns.
Video channels.
Sounds easy.
Many are doing this, so what?
This is a book, after all, not a video presentation.
Audiences are different.
Book-readers are more thoughtful.
Everything could be faked online, videos, time of broadcasting, etc., so the doubts will always persist.
Only thing that will really help me is getting the IM or GM title OTB, but that takes a lot of time.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

And the guy (KK) is only 2100 or so....similar level to Lyudmil, but without his magic powers.

KC is a Candidate Master so should at least be 2200 - I estimate +2250, and I think he'd easily destroy Lyudmil, though my perceptions are mostly based on Bullet and Superblitz...

Anyway, chess videos in general don't need production quality at all, I've compared amateur videos from people with something interesting to say, with those of "high quality production" of people that worry more about applying a Color Temperature filter on their webcam so the colors of their video match those of movie theaters than about the chess lines they analyze, and people seem to care more about the quality of the chess analysis itself than about the wrapping of the video, and it shows by thousands of views of difference.

In extreme cases people will complain that the board is too small, or that it shows black bars, or that they just hate the sounds of pieces moving, but those are easy to fix, and I have even seen chess videos with thousands of views with terribile audio that crackles and a cheap microphone could do better, but nobody complains because the actual chess content is good.

Chess needs no presentation.

In this case though, after spending some couple dozen hours reading old threads by Lyudmil, I'm concluding he's a scam, with some 85% certainty of sorts. At points I have no idea if he's trolling, or if he's insane, but he just makes some claims that are the exact opposite from reality.

Say, a chess position that is lost for black is posted, and all engines claim it's lost, and people on the forum agree that it's lost, yet Lyudmil will go on and claim that it's white that is winning and that engines don't know what they're talking about and that all forum members are missing the critical lines by Lyudmil.

When he shows these lines it turns out they are full of blunders by both sides, or they lead to positions where black clearly is still losing or Lyudmil was missing some variation because in some line he clearly didn't check with an engine at all, and when faced with this he'll backtrack and claim those lines don't matter, and it's THESE OTHER ONES that should be analyzed, but he runs into the same problems.

And then he'll give up claiming he's right but that he doesn't have time for this, or that it's just unfair for him to be defending his position against the entire forum alone.

People can check at home and see Lyudmil's analysis makes no sense, and conclude that either he's the perfect troll (his best ability is to gather people to attack his chess views), or there's some actual worrying problem if he actually believes what he says, and nothing will make him change his views to one that matches reality.

His "magic" is that he can look at a position for 10 seconds and in that time he'll be able to tell you who's winning, and why, and no matter how much time you spend analyzing the position deeply with the best engines or hardware, Lyudmil will have been ahead, and there will be no way to convince him otherwise.

I think this video of him beating Stockfish would be a miracle, unless he does as H.G.Muller suggests and fakes it, as I have seen evidence that he faked things for his book.

So what's the goal here? Increase Lyudmil's sales? Why? Isn't it better that people save their money instead of buying into the scam? Or should we just give him the benefit of the doubt until he provides the proof?

You are really such a TROLL.
I am a Bulgarian CM and have been OVER 2200 Bulgarian elo 12 years ago.
I have had 2400 performances then and beaten couple of GMs.
The scammer is you really, WHO managed to weaken SF by 8 elos.
Congratulations!

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

It makes no sense to read the rest.
Whenever I post, I am posting some games, some feedback, etc., and people are just trolling the thread.
I posted here the SF games, because SF 9 has just been released, so of interest.
I will post 2 more, to make the thread less trollish and more substantial.

As said, if you read 'The Secret of Chess', you will know 1. d4 easily draws:

[pgn][Event "Blitz 2m+2s"]
[Site "Microsoft"]
[Date "2018.02.09"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Stockfish 9 64 POPCNT"]
[Black "Lyudmil Tsvetkov, owner"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A44"]
[Annotator "owner"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[TimeControl "120+2"]

{512MB, OWNER-PC} 1. d4 {0.55/22 16} c5 {2} 2. d5 {0.69/24 8} e5 {1} 3. e4 {1.
07/20 1} g6 {3} 4. Nf3 {1.16/23 4} d6 {3} 5. Nc3 {1.13/23 7} a6 {4} 6. a4 {0.
91/23 6} b6 {3} 7. Nd2 {1.77/20 5} Bg7 {18} 8. Nc4 {1.77/21 2} Qc7 {5} 9. g4 {
1.90/23 0} f6 {15} 10. Qf3 {2.16/18 2} Ne7 {23} 11. h4 {2.37/24 3} h6 {8} 12.
h5 {2.70/25 3} g5 {2} 13. b3 {2.49/31 13} O-O {2} 14. Ne3 {2.36/30 0} Nd7 {18}
15. Bd3 {2.36/31 3} Bb7 {3} 16. Bb2 {2.40/27 2} Rfe8 {10} 17. Ne2 {2.51/26 4}
Ra7 {15} 18. Ng3 {2.49/28 4} Nf8 {9} 19. O-O {2.47/31 7} Rb8 {6} 20. Rfc1 {2.
45/29 9} Bc8 {4} 21. Qe2 {2.45/31 0} Rba8 {19} 22. Bc3 {2.45/31 7} Bd7 {18} 23.
Bb2 {2.45/35 0} Bc8 {4} 24. c3 {2.45/30 0} Bd7 {3} 25. c4 {2.45/32 0} a5 {3}
26. Re1 {2.47/25 8} Bc8 {5} 27. Nc2 {2.40/24 2} Nd7 {11} 28. Na3 {2.35/24 2}
Ba6 {7} 29. f3 {2.49/27 5} Nb8 {6} 30. Nb5 {2.49/36 3} Bxb5 {6} 31. cxb5 {2.49/
40 0} Nd7 {3} 32. Nf1 {2.49/42 0} Qd8 {3} 33. Bc1 {2.54/32 5} Nc8 {3} 34. Ng3 {
2.54/36 4} Ne7 {6} 35. Nf1 {2.54/38 0} Nc8 {2} 36. Be3 {2.54/38 4} Bf8 {3} 37.
Bf2 {2.54/37 4} Ne7 {2} 38. Ne3 {2.54/41 3} Bg7 {3} 39. Rac1 {2.54/42 1} Bf8 {2
} 40. Bg3 {2.82/32 5} Nc8 {6} 41. Nf5 {2.82/34 17} Qc7 {5} 42. Kf2 {2.77/30 10}
Ne7 {2} 43. Ne3 {2.75/38 15} 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

Have perfect draw score against SF in this line, it never gets an advantage.

And one handicap win, just for people to browse, after all, it is better to browse games than troll posts:

[pgn][Event "Blitz 2m+2s"]
[Site "Microsoft"]
[Date "2018.02.10"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Stockfish 9 64 POPCNT"]
[Black "Lyudmil Tsvetkov, owner"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "owner"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PP1P1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "100"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[TimeControl "120+2"]

{512MB, OWNER-PC} 1. d4 {-1.57/23 8} d5 {2} 2. Nf3 {-1.62/22 11} Nf6 {2} 3. Be2
{-1.70/22 9} c6 {2} 4. O-O {-1.62/22 9} Bg4 {2} 5. h3 {-1.82/24 24} Bxf3 {4} 6.
Bxf3 {-1.85/25 0} e6 {2} 7. Be3 {-1.83/23 5} Nbd7 {3} 8. Qb3 {-1.86/24 6} Qb6 {
2} 9. Qc2 {-1.87/23 3} Bd6 {6} 10. Nc3 {-1.91/23 0} O-O {4} 11. Rac1 {-1.92/22
3} Qd8 {12} 12. Be2 {-1.97/22 2} e5 {2} 13. dxe5 {-2.11/19 0} Nxe5 {3} 14. Rcd1
{-2.13/19 7} Ned7 {3} 15. Rfe1 {-1.96/20 5} Re8 {13} 16. Bf3 {-2.30/23 0} Qc7 {
26} 17. Bg5 {-2.22/21 13} Bf4 {14} 18. Bxf6 {-2.24/20 4} Nxf6 {1} 19. Kh1 {-2.
26/22 9} Qd7 {37} 20. Ne4 {-1.99/23 2} Nxe4 {7} 21. Bxe4 {-2.06/24 4} g6 {3}
22. Bf3 {-2.10/23 0} Rxe1+ {8} 23. Rxe1 {-1.89/1 0} Re8 {3} 24. Rxe8+ {-1.79/
23 0} Qxe8 {3} 25. Qe2 {-1.60/25 1} Qxe2 {3} 26. Bxe2 {-1.57/25 2} Bc1 {12} 27.
b3 {-1.63/26 2} f5 {15} 28. g4 {-1.31/29 2} Kf7 {13} 29. gxf5 {-1.45/26 3} gxf5
{1} 30. Bd3 {-1.62/31 12} Kf6 {3} 31. Kg2 {-1.72/33 5} Ke5 {8} 32. Kf3 {-1.86/
32 9} h6 {10} 33. a4 {-1.41/25 4} b6 {24} 34. Ke2 {-1.94/27 5} f4 {14} 35. h4 {
-1.90/28 5} Kd4 {6} 36. Ba6 {-2.00/35 0} c5 {8} 37. Kd1 {-2.44/31 1} Ba3 {6}
38. Kc2 {-2.52/31 1} Bb4 {11} 39. f3 {-3.25/32 3} Ke3 {21} 40. Bb7 {-4.34/33 0}
d4 {10} 41. Kd1 {-5.17/32 0} d3 {14} 42. Be4 {-3.31/31 3} d2 {5} 43. Bb7 {-6.
10/33 15} Kd3 {8} 44. Ba8 {-6.32/30 2} Kc3 {12} 45. Bd5 {-3.41/34 1} Kd4 {0}
46. Be6 {-5.62/30 4} Ke3 {3} 47. Bg4 {-6.23/33 4} a6 {12} 48. Bh5 {-6.89/27 4}
b5 {9} 49. Bg4 {-6.89/30 1} c4 {13} 50. bxc4 {-15.69/25 5} bxa4 {8} 0-1

[/pgn]

[gbtami]

You probably need to publish about 50-200 videos before you create a good one. First videos are usually crap unless you got talent.

Much work and once you start don't give up.

Are you speaking from experience? Or could we just take the word "probably" in your statement as meaning that you're guessing?

The guy isn't trying to get rich from adsense revenue (which requires VOLUME of videos).

He is trying to bring attention to a single book, build interest and direct traffic to an amazon landing page.

This is easier because the goal is already clear and each video can be directed around it and make mentions to passages in the book to build curiosity in the viewers.

He can also give away maybe 2 chapters for free via PDF, and place the link in the description of the videos.

A ton of people will grab it and those interested will purchase.

This is very basic direct response marketing strategy.

It is made MUCH MUCH easier by the fact that an obscure, middle-aged 2100 guy is outplaying Stockfish (3450Elo) live on camera.

An engine that even 2700 GMs recently said "I'd be happy to draw 1 game in 100 with Stockfish!"

If Lyudmil's claims are proven true, his videos will go viral overnight in the chess scene.

They'll be shared and sites like Chessbase will do articles on this amazing guy who "hacked" the computer chess algorithm.

And.... His book sales will soar.

Assuming he has this ability, a Youtube channel is a no-brainer.

All the negative thinking in the world won't change this fact.

If I could draw or beat Stockfish (any version!) at will, I'd be rich within a year - easily.

Unfortunately, I'm far too weak.

And back to Lyudmil...

Without concrete proof, everybody is going to see the reviews which Lyudmil didn't email strong players pleading for - which say things like this:

"Throughout the book, Lyudmil is trying to show how he plays better chess than Stockfish, an 3000+ ELO chess engine. We don't know if the games are real, in fact my Stockfish 8.0 don't agree the Stockfish moves in the book. Apparently, the games are fake - anybody with a laptop can make a PGN with some random moves, then change the player name to "Stockfish"."

The only way to overcome this skepticism is to play some live games against Stockfish and turn these non-believers (probably 99.9% of chessplayers) into believers.

And if Lyudmil indeed does this, proves existence of such an amazing talent, and silences the skeptics - there is no limit to what he can acheive.

It'll only take ONE or TWO videos to prove this, not 50-200.

What are you blabbering, Brendan, what reviews?
I have no official review like that, where did you get that from?
This is some scammer, spoofer or something.
Who has not read the book.
Because, PLEASE NOTE, there are NO games in 'The Secret of Chess', only patterns.
Video channels.
Sounds easy.
Many are doing this, so what?
This is a book, after all, not a video presentation.
Audiences are different.
Book-readers are more thoughtful.
Everything could be faked online, videos, time of broadcasting, etc., so the doubts will always persist.
Only thing that will really help me is getting the IM or GM title OTB, but that takes a lot of time.

I think you didn't understand the point in Brendan post. A Youtube video purpose is not to be a "proof" of something in mathematical sense. It's just a simple marketing thing. You say "Sounds easy." Then why don't you try it?