Improve your chess with the Woodpecker Method!

Hello everyone!
Today, I am gonna give
The Woodpecker Method to learn from
Let me first tell you how the woodpecker method how the Woodpecker method works. Let us go step by step!
Step 1
Cycle 1: Solve as many exercises as you can manage in four weeks. These exercises are your set; 
and solving them brings you to the end of your first cycle. (The exact time period can be adjusted 
according to your lifestyle and circumstances, but try not to spend much more than four weeks. If 
you find yourself taking much longer than four weeks, you have probably either not been putting 
in sufficient time, or have included too many exercises in your set.)
Step 2
Take a break from chess for at least a clear day, and up to a week if you need it.
Step 3
Cycle 2: Solve the same set of exercises but faster: within two weeks is the target.
Step 4
Repeat steps 2 and 3, and repeat again. Aim to complete each cycle in half the number of days as 
the previous cycle (rounded up, when dealing with an odd number of days).
Step 5
The Woodpecker Method has been completed when the full set of exercises has been solved 
entirely in one day – or after the 7th cycle, if you are unable to solve the full set in a day. In the 
final two cycles, you should focus more on spotting ideas, patterns and motifs at speed, and less 
on the finer details of calculation.
Customizing the Woodpecker Method
The five-step plan is straightforward enough, but a crucial variable is missing: how much time 
should you spend solving during the initial four weeks? Since the answer will depend on your 
level of ambition and life situation, it has to be your decision. Before you begin, we recommend 
that you set a target timetable with upper and lower limits. Between five and ten hours per week 
would seem realistic for an amateur player with work and/or family commitments. By setting a 
loose schedule, you ensure a certain amount of personal accountability for your training, while 
also having some leeway for unforeseen events. Life may have a tendency to get in the way; but 
if chess improvement is really important to you, we urge you to set an ambitious schedule and 
follow it ruthlessly (barring any life-changing events of course).
As an optional extra to setting a target number of hours per week, some players may find extra 
motivation by choosing the number of exercises beforehand. The appropriate number will depend 
on one’s playing strength, ambition and time available. A reasonable number for a working 
amateur might be 250. Ultra-ambitious players with significant time and energy to devote to 
training may go for around 1000 as we did; or even the mega-set of 1128 exercises in this book. 
Remember to take into account the difficulty level, and be ready to adjust your target as you go 
along. For instance, if you set a target of 800 positions, but have only solved half that number 
after four weeks, you probably set the initial target too high.
Other Guidelines
Solve the exercises in order. If you are stuck and unable to find a solution, then choose a move 
anyway, as you would have to do the same in a game. As time is an important factor, we recommend 
limiting the time you spend writing down and checking your solutions. Neither of us made any 
notes, and we only checked the solutions when we were uncertain. However, if you find it at all 
difficult to remember the lines you have calculated, feel free to write them down, especially for 
the first one or two cycles. Some players have told us they found it useful to alternate between 
solving a number of exercises (for example a page) and then checking the relevant solutions before 
moving on to the next page of exercises. Regardless of which way you prefer, just keep in mind 
that you should still try to maintain your pace. Compared to later cycles, the first cycle will likely 
use a larger portion checking the solutions, which is quite alright. Having to check solutions less 
in later cycles will help you finish the set in the allotted time.
Scoring 
After each session, note the time taken and the number of exercises. Counting the number of 
points you have scored is optional. We consider the score to be less important, and keeping count 
of it takes up some of your time and focus. We trusted our conscience; if we overlooked too many 
moves, we slowed down on the next session (or during the current one).
On the other hand, keeping a record of your scores also brings certain benefits. It may serve as a 
motivator when you know you will be competing with yourself and striving to score more points 
than in your previous cycle(s). It also provides feedback as to whether you are seeing enough. This 
is especially important from the second cycle onward, to avoid being satisfied with remembering 
the first move of the solution.
Unless otherwise specified in the solutions, this book uses the following scoring system: 
Finding the correct first move = 1 point
Finding each move marked by a sign = 1 point
Resources
Sample record sheets have been included at the end of the book on pages 390 and 391. In the first 
sheet, a couple of sample entries have been filled in for illustrative purposes, showing hypothetical 
dates, time spent solving, number of exercises, as well as the optional extra information of points 
scored and percentage score. 
The second sheet has been left blank. You may wish to photocopy it or use it as the basis for 
your own record sheets. Just fill in the ‘Woodpecker Cycle’ number at the top, and record the 
relevant data for each session. Then begin with a new sheet for your next cycle. 
For added convenience, a downloadable Excel record sheet has been made available at: http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/woodpecker-recordsheet.xls
The spreadsheet version has been programmed to keep track of total solving time, number of 
exercises, points and percentage score for a full cycle. This will make it easy to monitor your 
progress from one cycle to the next. 
Motivation
To push yourself, there are at least two types of goals you can set yourself in every training session.
Pace: During your first cycle, aim to solve as least as many exercises as in your previous session 
(assuming the exercises are of the same difficulty level) in the same amount of time.
Score: If you decide to keep track of your scoring, then aim to increase your percentage as you go 
along while maintaining your pace.
Beyond the First Cycle
Once you have finished the full set and enjoyed/endured your break, it’s time to start again. Your 
main goal for the second cycle is to solve more quickly, ideally halving the overall time. With the 
next cycle, aim to halve your time again, and so on. With every additional cycle, your increased 
recognition should compensate for the decreasing deadlines.
Although speed is key, do not satisfy yourself with spotting only the first move of the solution. 
Even if you are sure it’s the right move, be sure to calculate the follow-up. The only exception 
to this rule will come in the sixth and seventh cycles, by which time you should be striving to 
complete the full set within a single day, or at least get as close as possible.
Reaching the End
The Woodpecker Method has been completed when the full set of exercises has been solved 
in a single day (or after seven cycles, if one day proves unattainable). Time to celebrate! But 
where should you go from here? First and foremost, the ideal next step will be able to play 
some tournaments and put your improved tactical ability to use. As far as subsequent training is 
concerned, this will depend on your playing strength and goals. Woodpecker training is hard, so 
you will probably want to take a break from it for a while, and perhaps train some other aspect 
of your game. When you are ready though, you may wish to consider one of the following 
approaches.
If your first bout of Woodpecker training comprised a set of, say, the first 250 exercises from 
this book, the way to build upon your progress is obvious: after taking a suitable break, begin a 
new four-week cycle using further exercises from this book. You will now be at the intermediate 
difficulty level, but you should be well and truly ready for it by now.
Readers who began their Woodpecker training with a high level of playing strength and ambition 
may have been able to take on a larger set, perhaps comprising the 984 exercises in the easy and 
intermediate sections, or even the difficult section as well, for a brutal total of 1128 exercises. If 
you were able to complete a set like this within a day (or over seven cycles) then your tactical 
ability should have taken a significant leap. To maintain and build upon the gains you have made, 
it is a good idea to redo the set approximately once every six weeks, or at least as a warm-up before 
an important tournament. For anyone keen/crazy enough to want to repeat the entire method, 
there are plenty of other exercise/puzzle books on the market...

And you can use the woodpecker method in two ways:

Option 1 – General Solving
If you bought this book to practise exercises in your regular fashion, then turn to page 32 and 
begin solving the 1128 exercises we have prepared for you. They are assembled in three general 
levels of toughness. Just a quick word of warning though: as per our personal preference, these are 
not all “play and win” combinations. The task is to find the best move (and supporting variations) 
and the best move could, for instance, be to force a draw, gain a slight advantage or even avoid 
falling for a counter-tactic in a seemingly obvious combination. Good luck and have fun!
Quick Start 2 – The Woodpecker Method
If you wish to train using the Woodpecker Method, as advocated in this book, there are a few 
things you need to know before starting:
1. The general idea of the Method is to develop intuitive/automatic pattern recognition through 
repetitive solving of the same exercises in a cyclical fashion.
2. As you may already know, or have guessed from the description above, the Woodpecker Method 
is quite gruelling and not for everyone. Although we believe that most players could benefit 
greatly from it, the question is whether the time and energy could be better spent on improving 
another part of your game. For me (Tikkanen), using this method gave me a tremendous increase 
in stability in time trouble, improved my tactical vision quite a bit, and significantly reduced my 
blunder rate. I’m very happy I did it, but I will not repeat it in the foreseeable future – for now, I 
have done enough. If you decide this method might be for you and wish to give it a go, then we 
wish you the best – may your results reflect your effort!'

Links for the book woodpecker method
Now I will give the links which will lead to PDFs of Woodpecker Method
Woodpecker Method - Tactical Play
Woodpecker Method 2 - Positional Play
If the links are not working, download them on your own
Download Woodpecker Method - Tactical Play here
Download Woodpecker Method 2 - Positional Play here
Scroll down in both the links then you will find the download
First link click at download after scrolling, for the second one, click at Slow Server #1 or Slow Server #2

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