Human Versus Machine: How To Beat Stockfish and Komodo Part I (Human Machine Chess Book 1)

Interesting and very enjoyable book.

Mr. Tsvetkov is a Bulgarian chess player and computer chess expert and author. A few years ago he published a Chess Evaluation Compendium and more recently the book The Secret of Chess, followed by his Human vs Machine series, which I'm reviewing here.In these latest books, Mr Tsvetkov publishes some his best wins against top computer programs. The author shows himself to be not only a very skilled chess player, but also an expert anti-computer specialist. It is well known that today's top chess programs have been far stronger than the best human players, and defeating them is no mean feat, regardless of the playing conditions. Mr Tsvetkov's strong playing ability and high-level chess understanding come through very clearly when going over the games, which feature lucid and instructive annotations.The games themselves are masterpieces of strategic attacking chess, and I can't help but notice how the authors strategies can be relevant when facing both human and computer opponents. Although the opening systems adopted work best mostly when facing a chess program, they are very sound and effective enough to be deployed against anybody, so the student of the game can learn a lot from reading these books and then proceed to apply this refined knowledge in his own games. Here I am speaking as a strong player myself. There are a lot of good, even titled, chess players that do not excel at defeating computer opponents, and in fact struggle mightily, who could find this work inspiring, as well.I should add that Mr. Tsvetkov is not the first author to be renowned for writing a book about beating the strongest computer engines. Years ago, Dr. Ernest F. Pecci, M.D., a chess amateur, wrote a book on how to defeat Fritz, the top chess program of his day, and the foreword was written by none other than world champion Garry Kasparov. It should clear that playing against computers requires specialized skills, which these books do an excellent job of teaching. It is for this reason and many others that I find the negative reviews here, that seek to detract from these fine works, and by people who have never bought or read the books, very suspect as they don't do justice to the author's works.The author has shown himself repeatedly to be a computer expert and knowledgeable about the programs' playing weaknesses, with his helpful suggestions being incorporated into Stockfish, the world's top free program, and contributing to its further success, and also praised by Mark Lefler, programmer of top commercial chess engine Komodo. Mr. Tsvetkov does have a track record and his books and other contributions to computer chess speak for themselves. He has basically uncovered and exploited the chess engines' hidden weak points, but also shown and suggested working solutions to remedy these problems. This is a remarkable achievement, in my opinion.All in all, I highly recommend these books. You'll know more about chess as you read them.

"Human Versus Machine: How To Beat Stockfish and Komodo" is a book about beating Stockfish and Komodo in chess. Please note Stockfish and Komodo consistently ranked first or second on the world computer ranking lists.Let's discuss about the book introduction: "... I have played over 50 thousand engine games, of which more than 10 thousand against Stockfish ...". This is obviously not true, you do your maths - 50 thousand chess games would have taken like 200 years to complete.The book doesn't cover the main topic (how TO BEAT the engines) adequately. Instead, it tries to entertain us by some amateur annotations. We don't need it, we have plenty on the Internet. The concepts are not built up to any sophistication, but die at the halfway stage.The book spends a lot of pages on showing off on general chess theories such as bad bishops, rooks on the open files, uncastled kings etc. Again, we don't need that as there're many beginner chess books cover that. There is no coverage on engine weaknesses, wise use of time control, how chess engine work, search horizon, engine memory limitations, what positions engine can play bad and anything else that we might be interested in.

Earlier this year I received a copy of Tsvetkov's book, with the author asking for a review.The book is essentially a collection of annotated games in which the author has beaten a computer, and through the games Tsvetkov advocates playing closed formations such as the Stonewall, as the computer neglects to slow down his kingside attacks. The book is easy to read follow, and the author makes his opinions and judgements very clear.Overall, while the games are interesting, I sometimes wished the annotations were a little deeper. It would be nice to see Tsvetkov analyze alternate variations that would have improved upon the game. Also, one must realize that these games were not played at normal time controls - they were played under blitz conditions. By playing at fast time controls, the author intensifies the horizon effect of the computer. Without much time to calculate variations, the computer is more likely to underestimate long-term strategic plans. The openings that Tsvetkov chooses take advantage of this fact, giving him a greater opportunity of defeating the machine. I would be curious if a self-learning computer such as Alpha-Zero would have the same problems.Ultimately, if you want to beat a computer at chess, you may want to consider reading this book!

Not just about holding your own against computers/This book is amazing. Straight-forward explanations of games with some brilliant moves. Easy to learn how to spot them in your own games after reading this book. I read the free Kindle sample and was impressed enough to buy the whole book. Perhaps the best chess book I have read other than Winning Chess by Reinfeld/Chernev. Buy it!!!

I’ve got same observations as serverless. Moves from the author’s books are fake and I’ve checked, no Komodo/Stockfish in such versions followed such movies from books. I think author should prove his „theories” in controlled conditions - a match against mentioned engines which can be observed and verified by third persons. In my opinion such match won’t happen never - because the author is just not such strong player who is able to beat such „old” and „weak” versions of Komodo or Stockfish.

I am, essentially, a beginner at chess. I know how the pieces move, I know the very basics of tactics, and I know chess annotation. Seeing as this book was only £3.50 on Kindle, I thought I couldn’t go far wrong in buying it. I have seen a lot of negative comments and criticisms about the author’s character on the Chess.com website forum; some real childish behaviour to be honest on the part of the detractors. However, I was prepared to take the author at face value. In fact it was the pathetic behaviour of the detractors on Chess.com that brought this book to my attention.The book consists of 15 games that the author tells us he has played against the Stockfish and Komodo Chess engines which, I believe, are two of the strongest chess engines available; so long as you play against them on the top skill level that is.Reading the games in this book, whilst following along by actually making the moves on my physical chessboard, I am finding this book to be interesting and helpful, even though the skill level of both the engine and the author are way above my own. I am not very intelligent if truth be known, in fact I consider myself to be quite dumb when it comes to certain things, chess included, but I enjoy playing the game anyway. So I have to play each game from the book several times and think about every move as they are made, asking myself “why that move?” Or “why not this move?” The author punctuates the game every few moves with explanations as to why he/the chess engine made that move, which I find helpful.There is, however, one negative point I will make about the book, albeit it a minor negative: the game annotation. For some reason the author does not use the usual annotation of captures. For example, in all the books and games I have read/seen apart from this book, a capture is annotated by “x”; for example, fxe5, which means the pawn on the f-file takes the pawn/piece on the e5 square. However, the author of this books simply puts “fe5”, which really confused me at first. He also sometimes forgets to put, for example, 14...f5 to indicate that the move is made by Black, which isn’t a problem when White and Black’s moves appear together, such as 1. e4 e5, but if he gives an explanation of White’s move, then annotates Black’s move he will often miss out the three dots, indicating Black’s move, which can cause me confusion sometimes. These negatives are the reason I have given this book a 4-star rating, rather than a 5-star. Also he doesn’t annotate a check of the king with a + symbol, which is the norm. Some of his detractors have attacked his English grammar/spelling in the book. There are a few minor examples of this in the book, but the guy is Hungarian, and English is not his first language. Despite the very minor spelling mistakes, even a dumb person like me can understand what he is saying with ease.So, all in all a good book if you want to learn some of the deep moves, especially if playing against a computer/chess engine.I will probably be purchasing parts 2 and 3 in this series in due course.

Bei diesem Buch handelt es sich um 15 annotierte Spiele (Blitzschach), welche der Autor ausschließlich gegen unterschiedliche und veraltete Schachcomputer gespielt hat (Stockfish 4, DD). Bei allen Spielen dieses Buchs hat der Schachcomputer kein Handicap in der Anfangsposition, es handelt sich also um Standard-Schach.Es ist komplett auf English und meiner Meinung nach leicht verständlich geschrieben, wobei mein Englisch wirklich nur mittelmäßig ist. Ob es grammatikalische Fehler gibt kann ich nicht einschätzen, aber gut, wenn jemand welche findet, kann er sie gerne behalten.Illegale Züge habe ich auch nicht gefunden. Es gab Stellen im Buch, wo ich gedacht habe es wäre so, aber nach mehrmaligen sorgfältigem Prüfen und Nachspielen, hat sich immer herausgestellt, dass die Züge korrekt waren und funktionierten.Das Layout ist optisch furchtbar, Seitenumbrüche erscheinen völlig willkürlich, usw. - offensichtlich war hier kein Fachmann (Werbeagentur o.ä.) am Werk, aber gut ich empfand es nicht weiter störend - Optimierungsmöglichkeiten gibt es hier jedenfalls jede Menge.Was störend ist, ist die Annotation: es fehlen die x-Symbole, wenn Figuren geschlagen werden und es fehlen die +-Symbole wenn Schach gegeben wird. Ich habe mich gezwungenermaßen schnell daran gewöhnt. Für zukünftige Bücher würde ich mir das aber anders wünschen.Beim Nachspielen dieser Spiele und lesen der Erklärungen des Autors, lernt man auf der einen Seite Taktiken des Gegners zu vermeiden ("Prophylaxis") und auf der anderen Seite Strategien, um in Positionen zu kommen, wo das Schachprogramm erst mit sehr tiefer Berechnung erkennt, dass es positionell im Nachteil ist.Ich habe mehrfach den Eindruck gehabt, dass taktische Chancen bewusst nicht wahrgenommen wurden, um einem größeren strategischen Angriffsplan weiter zu folgen. Nur so scheint man in diese Positionen zu kommen, welche eine enorme Tiefe (oder eben menschlichen Sachverstand) erfordern, um geeignete Gegenstrategien zu entwickeln.Das übliche Muster bei diesen Spielen ist ein geschlossenes Zentrum aufzubauen, meist mit einer langen Baurernkette von der eigenen Damenseite zur gegnerischen Königsseite und den König mit einem "Bauernsturm" anzugreigfen. Wobei immer wieder abwehrende Schutzzüge auf der Damenseite erfolgen und jeder Bauernzug sehr sorgfältig positionell vorbereitet wird.Bei diesen Partien geht es also hauptsächlich um Strategie, dann um Abwehr, gegnerische Taktiken erkennen und vermeiden, und um Angriff - mehr darum Positionen zu verstehen und anzustreben, positionelles Spielen und weniger um Taktiken und taktisches Spielen.Insgesamt habe ich das Buch als sehr lehrreich und leicht zu lesen empfunden.Zuletzt würde ich mir einen vierten Band mit annotierten Spielen gegen Schachcomputer wünschen (keine Handicap-Spiele), bei denen der Schachcomputer weiß ist und mit anderen Zügen beginnt als 1.e4, insbesondere mit 1.d4 aber auch mit 1.Nf3 oder 1.c4 - z.B. 5 Spiele mit 1.d4 // 2 Spiele mit je 1. Nf3 und 1.c4 // und je 1 Spiel mit weniger häufigen Eröffnungen wie 1.g3, 1.f4, 1.Nc3, 1.e3, 1.d3, 1.b3.So einen vierten Band würde ich ganz bestimmt auch kaufen.

Most chess players noways avoid playing against strong engines like Komodo or Stockfish with the intention to win a game. We know that even strong GMs have problems to win any game against them, even with material odds. Recently he heard that Alpha Zero won clearly against Stockfish, certainly one of the most important events in chess history - if we consider the fact that Alpha Zero won after only four hours of self-play.But here we have now a human being able to win against Stockfish 4: Lyudmil Tsvetkov commented 15 winning games played against the monster Stockfish 4.The games are full of tactical and strategic subtleties; I was impressed by his attacking abilities and the way how he could spot inaccuracies by Stockfish and convert them into a win. The book can certainly be used to improve strategic game, but also show how to attack. Also his book "The Secrets of Chess" is highly recommended. I decided already that I will put all my chess books on strategy aside and use exclusively Tsvetkov's books in order to improve my game in 2018. As a weak player, I am basically learning new things in every page. But I can imagine that even strong players will find several useful insights in his books, especially his "The Secrets of Chess" (if you are interested there is for example a favourable review by the GM David Smerdon - you can google "davidsmerdon.com The Secrets of Chess").There is also something worth mentioning. There are some very negative reviews of the book, both in Amazon but also in chess.com, where Tsvetkov was kind to present his books in the forum. Most of these negative reviews were probably written by people who did not really read the book, or in some cases these people did read it but were too biased to understand the value of the book. Some people are for example criticising his English (I don't care about it, as my own English is rather poor), or they are irritated by the fact that he is not a GM and at the moment not an active chess player. These kind of criticism is of course irrelevant. Several very strong coaches or experts in different aspects of the game are not GMs, some even haven't any title in chess. The Russian Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016), probably the most famous chess coach in modern chess, was "only" an International Master. He was a time where most GMs trained at least for a while with him, and I am sure that they hardly noticed that he was not a GM, they were too occupied learning from him.Although of course the vast majority of IMs and GMs earned their titles with hard work, we should also not forget that it seems that at least some chess players gained IMs or GMs titles by cheating, as for example by faking whole tournaments!. It seems also possible to pay a GM to lose intentionally a game and allow his opponent to get a title norm. We should keep this in mind when discussing the sense or nonsense of titles in chess, and the qualifications an author need to write a chess book. We probably should put Tsvetkov's great games and comments in the foreground instead of criticising him for improving his game instead of playing chess in the last 10 years. Most of us can profit from his great insights.

Ich denke, die Grundzüge sind interessant, aber die Kämpfe liegen inzwischen recht weit zurück.Daher keine Empfehlung.