Lyudmil Tsvetkov

Now, GWTR is my only option: if he gets to GM level in a couple of months after partaking in some of my books, that would mean 'The Secret of Chess' is a GM-maker.

Honestly, I don't know what I would do without GWTR...

Here you have already gone over the board.

This is plain and simple draw.

Has anyone every gone OTB in an OTB game?

I believe GWTR will win.

What is the TC of the game?

More bull than a herd of Texan longhorns, white had a positional advantage and neither you nor your engine managed to discern it.  Hilarious.  thanks for the laughs, too funny.

1.  OK

2. Have faith in yourself

3.  Let's just mention I have read Human Versus Machine, Part 1

4.  If I win, I will not insult you.  I am not @BobbyTalparov, @SteamGear, or @DeirdreSkye

5. Good luck!

I do.

(Figuratively speaking, of course.)

I never insult players when I win. Chess is a game that we all love and enjoy.

Also, I have never insulted you, either.

No

Check post #29

can chess.com detect sock puppets?

Me mentioning that, at your level, you'll likely find insights in all levels of publications (even inferior ones) was not meant as a personal dig at you. I say it because I experienced the same thing, when I was a 1600-level player.

A 2000-level acquaintance of mine had written his own "secret" to chess—a collection of patterns and thematic ideas that he believed to be an algorithm, of sorts, to playing master-level moves.

And I believed in it. After all, he was 2000+ elo! Surely he knew what he was talking about?

For a short period of time, I adopted his approach and saw improvement. (I went up over 100 points, even, breaking the 1700 barrier for the first time). I thought I had "the answer"—the formula to always knowing the best moves to play.

There were obscure mantras to remember "tie the left shoe first, then the right shoe!", and absolutes to keep in mind "a bishop on the c5 and/or b6 diagonal is alway the correct placement, in every position", and so on, and so forth.

But over time, I began to see the flaws in his approach—things that didn't pan out over the board, no matter how hard I tried.

Eventually, I discarded his concepts (which I found too rigid, stifling, and too based on self-made "rules") and went back to more known, fundamental sources (My System by Nimzo, Excelling at Chess by Aagaard, are two which I've already mentioned).

My chess flourished again, as I embraced the idea that there is no "secret formula" to chess—other than identifying the needs of the position, and playing accordingly.

I've since surpassed that old acquaintance. Indeed, we played again a few years ago, and his progress hadn't risen very much at all. He still used his weird theories. I was able to push him around the board, enticing his pawns onto bad squares, provoking his pieces into even worse ones—as I was playing with concrete ideas in mind, while he was still trying to decide whether or not each of his moves checked the boxes of his theory.

So, I apologize if you felt offended—my intention was to merely warn you of not stumbling down that same path.

Is everybody crazy on this thread?

As I said, GWTR will win.

Then SteamGear will have to find another idol.

?

Um, GWTR is 500 rating points above me. Also, I’m a kid and he’s and adult.