Human Versus Machine: How To Beat Stockfish and Komodo Part II Paperback – October 25, 2017

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 evolved to be far stronger than the best human players, and for a human to defeat 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 while going over the games, which feature concise and instructive annotations. The author explains why the key moves are selected and how they fit into a larger plan.The games themselves are masterpieces of strategic attacking chess, and I can't help but notice how the author's strategies can be relevant when facing both human and computer opponents. Although the opening systems adopted work best versus chess machines, they are very sound and effective enough to be deployed against anybody, so the student of the game can learn and benefit a lot from reading these books. Here I am speaking as a strong player myself. There are a lot of good, even titled, chess players who do not excel at defeating computer opponents, and they 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 obviously don't do justice to the material published here.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 a contributing factor in its further success, and also praised by Mr. 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' weak points, but also shown and suggested working solutions to remedy these problems. This is a remarkable achievement, in my opinion.I will close with a quote from Mr. Tsvetkov, which matches what I believe wholeheartedly:"All the sophisticated chess knowledge and all the greatest chess games are ahead of us!I have ascertained this during my countless analysis sessions."All in all, I highly recommend these books. You'll feel like you know more about chess as you read them.

I always believed that man could beat chess computers. After reading Lyudamil Tsvetkov's book, one may wonder: is my faith in humanity restored? Yes and no. Grandmasters and the top players today depend too much on computers. Therefore, they give an overoptimistic view of their power.Lyudamil Tsvetkov's research is convincing to me. This is a must-read book for GMs and any chessplayers who think computers are invincible. It is refreshing to know that I am not the only one who can beat computers. Lyudamil Tvsetkov, you took it to another level. GM RESEARCH!!!I am inspired to play against both man, and machine.

This is the second volume for the "Human Versus Machine" series. Again, like the first volume, the quality is very poor. I'm going to list the issues here: - Spelling mistakes everywhere - Grammar mistakes everywhere - Illegal moves in the games - Inconsistent notation (e.g. dxe4 and de) - Wrong assessmentI'm very disappointed about the book. There's nothing in the book on how to "beat" the chess engines, all you will see is some random blitz games against the engines. The engine moves are obviously fake (or not enough time given for thinking), as modern engines running on a standard time control wouldn't commit the trivial positional mistakes as you will see in the book.Unless the author can show decent quality in the engine games, I don't think the book is appropriate for selling.

It shows typical plans where the engines lack enough depth to understand that they have problems, so are not able to defend well. Anyway of course there are a lot of threats that escape human ability, but from time to time they are winable.

Bei diesem Buch handelt es sich um 15 annotierte Spiele (Blitzschach), welche der Autor ausschließlich gegen unterschiedliche, teilweise veraltete, Schachcomputer gespielt hat (Komodo 10.1 und Stockfish DD, 5, 6). 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.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.