The Secret of Chess

[BrendanJNorman]

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.

You know exactly what I'm "blabbering" about Lyudmil.

I tried to offer you sincere advice when you began to launch this book, but instead you used your own dishonest marketing methods (read: scamming tricks).

1. You made outrageous claims (such as "the only person on earth stronger than me is Carlsen!"), but refused to back them up - just telling people to buy the book.

2. You posted on message forums doctored games against Stockfish to pretend that they were head to head encounters played on fair terms (and thus increase your perceived credibility).

3. You emailed a whole slew of strong/titled players and prominent computer chess people, begging for reviews (playing the odds game, definitely some people will be altruistic)

4. You continued to troll around message forums on chess.com, Tc. Rybkachess, Hiarcs chess and elsewhere, and made more outrageous claims - claiming to be GM strength and the "only person on earth who can beat SF".

5. I work in chess marketing and have earned tens of thousands of dollars in a single week for chess companies, and offered you FREE advice for how to build credibility - and this is "blabbering"? F*#k you, you ungrateful rat.

Your method of marketing your book is scammy and disingenuous and preys upon the naivety of chess learners.

And this is why you have attracted negative criticism around the web and become a laughing stock, despite the endorsed reviews of decent players.

Because you chose the deceptive way to market your book, instead of some honest (and longer enduring) ways I proposed originally, you have lost the trust of the market.

This is your own fault - and this is what I'm "blabbering" about.

You should take this as a lesson, but like so many on this site with similar temperaments, you likely won't.

[BrendanJNorman]

This about sums it up...



This is how people you didn't endorse felt about the book, Lyudmil.

The book perhaps is good (his words "average at best" were likely the result of his contempt of your attitude and not 100% objective), but your personality turns people off.

And probably also your manner of tricking people into buying.

But like so many people who do the wrong thing and get stung...it must be the world's fault, right?

This is all I have to say on the matter, my feelings are clear.

Some interesting reading:

Lyudmil Tsvetkov

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/genera ... l-tsvetkov

[Ovyron]

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?

Nah, I depicted some weird behavior for analysis, using of Transposition Table also in Principal Variation nodes solved what I was talking about, and made the engine +8 elo stronger. That was my contribution. Smooth scaling was Dann Corbit's contribution, it greatly helped for analysis for version 1.6s and I was using it alongside default Stockfish up to version 2, I believe.

Anyway, it doesn't matter, what matters is Stockfish is using a patch I suggested, and now you're using Stockfish with my patch without my persmission. I don't really mind, but I'd like if you stopped telling people to stop using Stockfish without your permission because you have suggested patches that are used in it. It doesn't give you any right.

In any case, in his penultimate post Brendan mentioned some things about you I wasn't aware of, so congrats on gaining +10% chance on just being a scammer, now up to 95%. And most of the other 5% is just the chance that you're delusional, but actually believe everything that you say. You actually perceive a different reality from the rest of us.

Just arrange a match against Brendan on lichess, surely he's weaker than you and you'd have no problems. I'm certain that he'd destroy you with ease (like he did with me... heh).

But if you continue your pattern, you're going to claim you can't play Brendan because you're too busy, or some other excuse. Or maybe you're going to accept and will cheat against him. Or maybe you will not play him at all and doctor a game where you supposedly beat him. At this point I have no idea, but there's some circumstances that would confirm you 100% scammer.

[velmarin]

5. I work in chess marketing and have earned tens of thousands of dollars in a single week for chess companies,

This is really possible,
How lucky are some of you

[Karlo Bala]

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?

People here are too kind and do not always give their opinion. IMHO, you are absolutely right, >95% of Ludmil's posts are pure bullshit.

[syzygy]

Anyway, it doesn't matter, what matters is Stockfish is using a patch I suggested, and now you're using Stockfish with my patch without my persmission. I don't really mind, but I'd like if you stopped telling people to stop using Stockfish without your permission because you have suggested patches that are used in it. It doesn't give you any right.

Lyudmil seriously did that?? That is utterly outrageous.

[karger]

Do not waste your time or money on this book , it is a joke.

[Ovyron]

Anyway, it doesn't matter, what matters is Stockfish is using a patch I suggested, and now you're using Stockfish with my patch without my persmission. I don't really mind, but I'd like if you stopped telling people to stop using Stockfish without your permission because you have suggested patches that are used in it. It doesn't give you any right.

Lyudmil seriously did that?? That is utterly outrageous.

Here:

I will post, if anything just on this thread, as I can not post 100 replies in 5 threads.

will wait for the truth outing at some propicious point in time.

in the meantime, I would request pretty much everyone in this hating bunch, primarily Bram, Andreas, Possioto, Herbert, Vincent, etc., not to use SF for their analyses, as in SF code there have been at least 20 successful evaluation patches based on my ideas, and without those, SF would never have reached its current status.

do you want me to enumerate them all?

- advanced levers
- blocked storming pawns on the 6th rank
- edge a/h storming pawn, blocked by king
- minor-queen imbalances
- penalty for doubled pawns in terms of distnace between the pawns
- center bind bonus
- penalty for low mobility pieces on the edge

etc., etc., at least 20!

other ideas of mine have served for successful patches too, indirectly, because the primary notion has been mine, or because my suggestions have spurred thoughts along similar lines.

for example, a piece protector bonus has been proposed by me and tested at the framework long time ago.
attacking squares on the king side, not part of the shelter, too
bonus for penetration points, currently, minors attacking an outpost square
etc., etc.

also, pawn push threat, and
most importantly, psqt bonus for connected defended and duo pawns in terms of rank, implemented in late 2013 by Joerg Oster and Ralph Stoesser.

do you know that this patch was a turning point in SF's development?
omly after it, SF began playing in a more positional vein, considering its advanced pawns.

only after it, SF was able to become the strongest engine on the planet!
without it, quite probably it would not have done so.

because of it, SF is currently playing KIDs best.

all these patches and the subsequent SF rise would have been impossible without me.

do you consider that at all, when attacking me in such an atrocious manner?

do you?

that is why, I would kindly ask you not to use SF any more in your tests and analyses.

Please note he used "etc.", so basically all the people that posted on that thread don't have his permission to use Stockfish. Though, I don't know if it's even more outrageous that he claims Stockfish could have never become the #1 engine without Lyudmil's help...

[carldaman]

Anyway, it doesn't matter, what matters is Stockfish is using a patch I suggested, and now you're using Stockfish with my patch without my persmission. I don't really mind, but I'd like if you stopped telling people to stop using Stockfish without your permission because you have suggested patches that are used in it. It doesn't give you any right.

Lyudmil seriously did that?? That is utterly outrageous.

Here:

I will post, if anything just on this thread, as I can not post 100 replies in 5 threads.

will wait for the truth outing at some propicious point in time.

in the meantime, I would request pretty much everyone in this hating bunch, primarily Bram, Andreas, Possioto, Herbert, Vincent, etc., not to use SF for their analyses, as in SF code there have been at least 20 successful evaluation patches based on my ideas, and without those, SF would never have reached its current status.

do you want me to enumerate them all?

- advanced levers
- blocked storming pawns on the 6th rank
- edge a/h storming pawn, blocked by king
- minor-queen imbalances
- penalty for doubled pawns in terms of distnace between the pawns
- center bind bonus
- penalty for low mobility pieces on the edge

etc., etc., at least 20!

other ideas of mine have served for successful patches too, indirectly, because the primary notion has been mine, or because my suggestions have spurred thoughts along similar lines.

for example, a piece protector bonus has been proposed by me and tested at the framework long time ago.
attacking squares on the king side, not part of the shelter, too
bonus for penetration points, currently, minors attacking an outpost square
etc., etc.

also, pawn push threat, and
most importantly, psqt bonus for connected defended and duo pawns in terms of rank, implemented in late 2013 by Joerg Oster and Ralph Stoesser.

do you know that this patch was a turning point in SF's development?
omly after it, SF began playing in a more positional vein, considering its advanced pawns.

only after it, SF was able to become the strongest engine on the planet!
without it, quite probably it would not have done so.

because of it, SF is currently playing KIDs best.

all these patches and the subsequent SF rise would have been impossible without me.

do you consider that at all, when attacking me in such an atrocious manner?

do you?

that is why, I would kindly ask you not to use SF any more in your tests and analyses.

Please note he used "etc.", so basically all the people that posted on that thread don't have his permission to use Stockfish. Though, I don't know if it's even more outrageous that he claims Stockfish could have never become the #1 engine without Lyudmil's help...

I would take that comment with a grain of salt. Lyudmil was obviously upset at others, not giving him any credit for his actual contributions, as if he had done nothing except making empty claims. I'd cut the guy some slack - he's written some fine material, although hard to digest for most. He's clearly an independent thinker, with a stubborn streak, who sticks to his guns, perhaps to a fault. Don't forget, even theorists like Steinitz and Nimzowitsch drew a lot of flak in their day and were unpopular for a while. Even Kmoch was criticized for the terms he introduced in his Pawn Power book.

[Ovyron]

I'd cut the guy some slack - he's written some fine material, although hard to digest for most. He's clearly an independent thinker, with a stubborn streak, who sticks to his guns, perhaps to a fault. Don't forget, even theorists like Steinitz and Nimzowitsch drew a lot of flak in their day and were unpopular for a while. Even Kmoch was criticized for the terms he introduced in his Pawn Power book.

Really? Now you're drawing that comparison?

Here's some Lyudmil Tsvetkov's "fine material, although hard to digest for most" outrageous claims:

He claims that 1.c4 is the best opening for white by far.
He claims that 1. e4 e6?? is a blunder and black is almost lost already.
He claims that Magnus Carlsen and other GMs of such level are actually very weak compared to him, and that they wouldn't be able to crush chess engines like he does, unless they read his books.
He claims that you improve 100 elo instantly by just reading the table of contents of his book.

And I can go on an on.

This isn't to be taken with a grain of salt, Lyudmil is dead serious with such claims, and really means them. Requesting people to stop using Stockfish is no different.

And, anyway, you claim he was "obviously upset"... is that so? With trolls they actually are laughing their ass off at all the attention they get, and pretend they're upset to get even more attention. Unless he is deranged, but I'm moving towards the troll part after seeing evidence he actually uses sock-puppets to praise his own book, you can recognize them as Lyudmil doesn't even take the time to thank them for all the praise...