The Secret of Chess

Hi everyone.

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

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

On above page you can learn more about the book, as well as browse

some exceprts.

if you guys want a little more complete introduction of who this guy is, this website has a profile, including some pretty extensive discussions regarding chess position evaluation within computer chess engines:

http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Lyudmil+Tsvetkov

I googled him

@Lyudmil

I was having problem with the link.  perhaps though it is my firewall.  I will try with another computer. 

great patzer, thanks for the introduction!

I suppose you are GM otherwise.

you mean not able to access the site secretofchess.com?

this is the first complaint of this kind, please try one more time, and we will see what happens.

people at talkchess don't seem to have this problem.

anyway, I just had my first buy today and I am so happy.

maybe someone on this forum will buy too.

at one point, I got completely demoralised, 4 months writing the book, and another 4 full

years preparing it in terms of collecting all the necessary information.

for the time being, all I might say is it is definitely better than Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess and Nimzovich's My System, but, as I usually don't have much luck in life, probably no one will notice it this time too...

a bit more about the book:

this is a book, following pattern recognition.

in this way, it is possible to improve one's chess about 4 or 5 times faster
than the usual way through studying games and theory, as it is much easier
and less time-consuming to learn 1000 patterns than browse through and
remember 10 000 games or test/opening positions.

pattern recognition, including learning through pattern recognition,
is the future of chess.

in case the book text is a bit advanced, there are lots of diagrams accompanying each and every
chess term/pattern, so even weaker players can learn quite a lot by just looking at the diagrams
and remembering which patterns are good and which to be avoided.

just a question, if anyone is kind enough to asnwer.

is this the main chess.com forum?

as I read it has hundredths of thousands of members,

but see relatively low activity.

if anyone is interested, the first feedback I got on my book is that of Mark Lefler,

the author of Komodo, who, in a personal mail to me wrote that the book is great

and that in the first 30 pages read he found 10 new ideas worth trying to implement in Komodo.

when interest is low, one should try to publicise a bit, though I am not very good at that.

Now the book is available for much lower prices as ebook and paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M85CVV

maybe someone will get interested after all...

Currently, the option for purchasing 'The Secret of Chess' from my site via Paypal is disabled, and I will update the site in a while.

So that the only option now is Amazon(paperbacks and ebooks):
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Chess-Lyudmil-Tsvetkov-ebook/dp/B074M85CVV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I must say, that I am more or less happy with Amazon, in general they are doing what they say.
On the other hand, PayPal proved to be simply crooks.

3 months on, I have to ascertain there is not much feedback/interest in my book. I see 3 possible causes for this:

1.) The book is bad
2.) People can't understand it
3.) The book is written in high style/high knowledge style, different from traditional conceptions, and most people prefer low knowledge/routine instead of high knowledge

For myself, I am not entirely clear what the main cause is.

What do you think?

It doesn't mention his fide rating and for now he doesn't have a fide title.Most players will buy a chess book from a least Fide master, preferably a GM.

That is really funny.

Did someone ask Shakespeare for his credentials, when he wrote his plays?

Does FIDE forbid players to become stronger than their rating or very much stronger than their rating?

You are really funny, why don't you read the book instead?

If I am able to beat Stockfish, I might be stronger than a regular GM.

Or, are you convinced all GMs can beat Stockfish?

You have to be nuts to pay 20 eur for a pdf book from a guy who is not even a grandmaster. We have lots of alternatives ( deep thinking - g. kasparov is 13 dollars). Maybe if you had a much more lower price, your book  could be a good alternative compared to other grandmasters. But being greedy doesnt help you selling, this is a mistake made by many authors: they write a book only for selling, even if they  dont have a name made yet, consider this: even if the book is good, who do you think  will read it? like they dont have where to choose from. You cant think of books as products,  you think that people are curious for another chess book/ book? the naked truth is that if nobody  will write books for 1000 years, people still had books to read. Also  is more important to be read than to be paid, a guy who read you without paying may  pay for  your  future books, but someone who never read your books will never pay for them. Marketing is also  a good solution, pay a grand master to promote it. 

Any chess secrets will come from GM Garry Kasparov, GM Karpov or any GM, not from a non-title player. Any amateur can use a engine to show how brilliant he is, it take a GM to reveal the whys in a move. That is why I don't use a engine, I force myself to find the whys in a position; any player aspire to master level needs to learn how to analyze a position, Botvinnik said that is the first goal of a chess player to be proficient calculator. The question is how can a player be a good calculator when he is rely on that stupid engine; a very strong American master wrote to be good in analyzing a position one must force yourself to calculate and find what is hidden in a position. 

I can't imagine why anyone would buy a chess book written by an untitled player.  Why would anyone assume an untitled player has sufficient skill to write a worthwhile chess book if he hasn't demonstrated it in competition?  There are many worthwhile books written by masters and grandmasters of unquestioned skill.  I wouldn't buy a book on how to achieve success in the stock market that was written by someone with no record of success in the market.

Shakespeare was a poet and playwright. His talent was writing poems and plays. An author of instructional chess books is expected to have a high level of expertise in chess. And unlike poets and playwrights, the chess book author's expertise is demonstrated by his title and competitive results. It's not important that he be a gifted writer because if he isn't, he can get assistance from a professional writer.
Where's the evidence that you're stronger or very much stronger than your rating as you implied? The answer, "Buy the book and you'll see the evidence," won't cut it.

 There are several successful untitled authors of chess books. Most of them are strong orrespondence players rather than OTB. Such as Anthony Rotella, The author of "The Killer Sicilian".

Well, the ebook on Amazon is just 7 dollars: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Chess-Lyudmil-Tsvetkov-ebook/dp/B074M85CVV . I don't think this is expensive for a book containing over 550 diagrams.

That is the point, it is NOT any other book, but a completely new definition of positional chess.

If half of the knowledge terms are fully original and new, how could the book lack substance?

But I guess one problem is even grandmasters will have big problems understanding it.

You are on the surface, man, you are on the surface. Go deeper.

I can beat you 1000:0 at any time and at any place, but that will still not suit you.

I am using engines and engine games ONLY to gather statistical information, which is very important, but otherwise all or almost all ideas are fully mine. That is the difference between my books and some tactics books that are going over basically the same things: my books offer something new.

How many authors do you know who have written about contests, winning at that, with the top engines?

How many authors do you know that are using as sophisticated evaluation for positional patterns as mine?

I guess, the first obligation of a conscientious reader is to investigate what the book offers and only then comment on substance. What don't you like about the substance of 'The Secret of Chess'?

That it contains 100 pawn features, while most other books will see just 10 or 20, and some 30 outpost and material imbalance features, while most other books will contain just a third of that?

Really, it is not good to stay on the surface.

I have a very, very good record:

- over 2200 12 years ago, have not competed since then, a couple of 2400 performances

- big success with implementation of my ideas in Stockfish code; the ideas of IM Kmoch and some GMs don't work, mine do

I don't know why people can't understand that a person can advance tremendously, if he focuses just on one thing. That is what I have been doing for the last 5 years. My rating 12 years ago was based on 1 hour average daily play, now I am playing 16 hours.

And I am a bright guy, you know, if I have managed to learn 6 foreign languages.

If you see a good product made in China, will you buy it?

Or not buy it, because it was made in China?

The evidence is clear, I am the only living person, so far, who is able to beat the top chess engines.

What more do you want?

Speaking of grandmasters, I have beaten grandmasters OTB, GM Vladimir Petkov, GM Ivan Radulov, drawn with GM Lyuben Spasov in a won position, etc. And of course, if I have beaten GMs, I have beaten IMs and masters too(that is for my Bulgarian rating, I have played very few FIDE rated games).

So I don't know what the fuss is all about, if I have been able to, occasionally, beat GMs 12 years ago, certainly I am able to do much more now, when I am at least 3 times stronger.