My First Experience with The Woodpecker Method

At the beginning of May 2020, my relationship with chess was not healthy. During lockdown here in the U.S., I had studied very intensely, often focusing on multiple aspects of my game for several hours a day. However, with no OTB tournaments available to keep me accountable towards my improvement, my motivation slowly diminished. I was becoming more frustrated with the game and even began to develop feelings of stopping my study altogether until lockdowns eased.

Then I stumbled on this video by Kostya Kavutskiy on how to train as a chess player:

What surprised me most about Kostya's points was how he favored focusing on one area of the game at a time and really diving deep into it.

Since I picked up chess again about a year ago, I had consistently focused on multiple areas of my game with the notion that other aspects of it would lag behind if I didn't give them any attention. Often that would involve positional, tactical, endgame exercises, studying top games, etc. all in the same day. Yet, all this study was wearing me down to the frustrations I was experiencing now, and something had to change.

Inspired by Kostya's point, I decided to focus on improving my tactical vision and pattern recognition. This doesn't entail the ability to visualize several moves ahead (more hardcore calculation), but rather the speed at which we can recognize the presence of possible tactics via pattern recognition in our head. This involves solving lots of relatively easy puzzles for our strength to build up a databank of patterns in our subconscious mind. It's the inspiration for Puzzle Rush here on Chess.com, for instance.

And how to best build that databank? In my opinion (and that of many others in recent years), spaced repetition on a tight schedule is the way to go here. Sites like chessable.com are leveraging this concept of replaying the same openings/endgames/puzzles to cement the patterns in our heads, but the first place I saw this in chess was The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith and Hans Tikkanen. I had a singular focus now, and I would dedicate my chess study in May solely to the Woodpecker.

What is the Woodpecker Method?

In short, the Woodpecker Method involves solving a set of (typically tactical) exercises in a given amount of time, then repeatedly solving that same set over and over again (so-called "cycles), approximately halving the amount of time it takes on each cycle of the set. The goal of this is not to memorize the solutions, but to develop pattern recognition in your sub-conscious that will quickly tip you off to tactics in your own games.

In this case, I took on a set of 222 "easy" puzzles and 762 "intermediate" puzzles provided by The Woodpecker Method book. A couple hundred "advanced" puzzles are also in the book, but as the authors explain themselves, these are quite difficult and work more towards developing calculation abilities than tactical vision. I set my goal to solve all 984 of these puzzles in 4 weeks or less.

I also decided to use the paperback version of the book and write down my answers by hand, only checking solutions after my solving session for accuracy. As the authors explain, speed in getting through the problems is priority 1, but obviously attempting to get as many solutions correct as possible is an important secondary consideration.

And so I began on May 2.

My Results with the Method

My first cycle of 984 puzzles took me about 19 hours of solving time over the course of about 3 weeks, achieving a solving accuracy of about 85% - 90% on the daily. This being the first time I had seen all of these problems, I typically did not have these problems' patterns in my subconscious, and so it was quite a slow and arduous process!

After taking a break for a couple days, I delved in for cycle 2. This time, I completed all 984 problems in less than 8 hours of solving time over the course of 9 days with a slightly higher solving accuracy! Quite an improvement already! What I immediately noticed was that I was recognizing patterns towards the problems' solutions very quickly, particularly amongst those problems I spent quite a while grappling with during the first cycle. Hard work nailed these patterns in my sub-conscious. But what's important is that, with the exception of a few problems I really enjoyed optically, I didn't memorize any of the answers. Everything was developed tactical vision, and solving problems quickly like this was a great feeling.

Cycle 3 was even faster at just over 3 hours of solving time over 5 days. This time, I didn't bother writing my solutions and only checked a solution if I felt at all not confident (as the authors attest to themselves doing). My time was reducing by more than half again!

I decided that, because cycle 3 involved solving ~200 puzzles per day, I was in the realm where I could very feasibly solve the whole set in one day. So on June 9, I did just that, solving all 984 puzzles (without writing the solutions) in just under 2 hours in 2 sittings on the same day. Quite a difference from my first cycle!

The Effects of Woodpecking

Coming into this woodpecking challenge, I expected my tactical vision would improve. And indeed, that's certainly the case! As I built up my new databank of about 1000 tactical patterns in my sub-conscious, my rapid games online improved dramatically. Tactics were no longer a stumbling block in these 10 minute games, but an ally I regularly used to decide things in my favor. I always found myself to possess a rather balanced playing style that never feared entering tactical positions, but not I was recognizing game-winning tactics at far faster speeds than before.

What I didn't expect to stem from this exercise was all the other benefits. I began to take chess less strictly, playing moves in a more carefree style. This practically eliminated most of the time trouble issues I was facing before woodpecking from my perfectionist, careful tendencies. Playing in a 45/45 League, for instance, I often found I had more time that I started with while my opponents already flirted with the 20 minute mark.

The most surprising of this new carefree attitude: my chess performance actually improved. I was simply winning games much more consistently and quickly. Much of this came down to how, beyond simply recognizing tactical themes with my sub-conscious vision, I was setting up these very themes with positionally sound moves. Then, when the moment came to strike, I was ready several moves in advance.

Finally, and most importantly, I noticed that I began to enjoy chess again. Moderation is key to everything, and while my woodpecking program was tight in schedule, I felt far less overwhelmed in my studies than before. Beyond woodpecking and my occasional online classical/rapid games, my only other chess study during may was opening preparation for those online league games. And as a result, I began to eagerly anticipate playing and studying chess again. Coupling this with my improved performance, and chess was immensely more satisfying for me at the beginning of June compared to the beginning of May.

Lessons Learned

With lockdowns still preventing OTB chess tournaments in my area, I have no testimonies beyond my online rapid and classical improvement on how the Woodpecker Method has directly improved my Chess. That being said, I intuitively feel like my chess is now at its strongest state compared to ever before, and that the Woodpecker Method is a valuable tool that I will continue to use to bring it along further.

In short:

• Focusing on one area of your chess study at a time (typically about a month) is a valuable approach towards improvement. You can focus lightly on other areas at the same time, but really focusing on one may yield the greatest long-term benefit. I now plan on focusing my June and early July on my Theoretical Endgame play, for instance.
• The Woodpecker Method and spaced repetition is a terrific way to improve an area of your chess, whether that be tactical vision, opening memorization, etc. But it needs to be relatively strictly maintained -- you need to be accountable to yourself in terms of properly timing your sessions, writing down your solutions on cycle 1, etc., or the method may fall apart at the seams.
• Moderation is key when it comes to chess study. Overwhelming yourself with new concepts or too much practice is a fast track to frustration. Seeing how we often see Magnus Carlsen playing soccer between matches rather than hiding in his hotel room studying chess, I bet even the best player in the world agrees (at least in part) with this sentiment.
• Maintaining your tactical vision should be a top priority for any chess player. I've even heard testimony that Garry Kasparov, despite being retired from professional chess, still solves tactical puzzles to keep his game sharp. I know that now, even if I'm taking the next month to focus on my endgames, I'll be solving several new exercises a day to stay sharp.