The Woodpecker Method 2: Positional Play

by Axel Smith

Since its publication in 2018 The Woodpecker Method has been the go-to manual among chess players with a thirst for tactical improvement. The Woodpecker Method 2 is the long-awaited sequel, designed to skyrocket your positional decision-making skills. The Woodpecker Method means solving a large number of puzzles over a period of weeks; then solving the same puzzles repeatedly, faster each time. This will program the subconscious mind, improving both accuracy and the speed of ones decision-making. The Woodpecker Method 2 has 1000 positional exercises and solutions, with detailed guidance on how to gain maximum benefit from them. All the exercises have been checked and rechecked using the latest engines, as well as tested for valuable human feedback; among others by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who ascended to 4th in the world rankings after working through this book. Download Woodpecker 2 Scoresheet XLS Download Woodpecker 2 Scoresheet PDF

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Reference

1397 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 21, 2024

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes a method - “the woodpecker method” - of improving at chess. You solve the same tactics problems over and over, getting faster each time. One of the authors invented this method using a different tactics book, solving all the problems front to back, then starting over from the beginning and repeating. This book advocates using the same method, but using the tactics problems in this book, which were chosen for the purpose. The rationale is that you need your subconscious to recognize patterns and identify good moves for you rather than always relying on slow conscious analysis. Perhaps training on the same problems repeatedly will improve these subconscious skills better? The authors think so.

Let me be clear: I’m not good enough at chess for this method to make any sense for me. To improve at chess, I need to play more games, not drill tactics problems. But drilling tactics problems just sounds more fun to me than playing games, so drilling tactics it is!

Previously, I had been doing standard (not blitz) tactics problems on chesstempo.com. My ability to solve problems correctly by thinking carefully for 5-10 minutes had certainly improved, but this wasn’t carrying over well to games, where I am still missing simple one-move tactics every game. I tried blitz problems, but I didn’t enjoy them as much and didn’t feel like I was improving at them. Then I noticed that if when I come back to a problem I missed later the same day, I usually still can’t figure it out right away. I started thinking that repeating the same problems might actually work better than solving new ones each day. After trying it, I find repeating the same problems oddly satisfying, because I do at least make progress and get better at solving those specific problems. Will it generalize? Probably not. But I can hope.

Even having decided to drill tactics, I doubt it makes sense for me to use the specific problems and method from this book. The problems are beyond my level. They are divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced problems. The beginner problems are usually at my level, but even those sometimes have solutions that rely on more sophisticated positional evaluation than I have rather than clearly winning material. I haven’t tried the intermediate or advanced ones. The method of always starting over from the beginning seems like a decent technology-free solution, but I would rather solve them in a randomized order each time. I suspect that always solving in the same order would lead me to start remembering solutions based on the preceding problem, which obviously isn’t ideal. So instead of the physical book, I have been using the chessable.com implementation of the book, which uses spaced repetition to give me problems to review. This seems a bit better, but chessable has other tactics sets as well, and I probably should have just picked a different set.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own the hardcover book but did my later cycles on chessable (https://www.chessable.com).

I've wanted to try this method since reading about it in Pump Up Your Rating. However, even though that book has instructions I never quite felt I was doing it right and abandoned the method after a couple of short attempts. When I heard this book was coming out I was very excited and bought it day 1 in hardcover.

I was not disappointed. I felt much more motivated working on this than other tactics training I've done in the past on chessable and online tactics trainers (chesstempo, chess.com, etc.).

Also, I have a fairly strong belief that the specific repeated training of these tactical problems will pay off much more than just doing hundreds/thousands of problems without repeating them - never truly internalizing them into my subconscious.

RESULTS (for reference on my playing strength I'm ~2000 USCF):
Cycle 1: 984 problems | 40 hours* | 87% accuracy**
Cycle 2: 984 problems | 18 hours | 92% accuracy
Cycle 3: 984 problems | 10.5 hours | 92% accuracy***
Cycle 4: 984 problems | 7 hours | 92% accuracy
Cycle 5: 984 problems | 4.85 hours | 96% accuracy
Cycle 6: 984 problems | 3.28 hours | 98% accuracy

*The time I tracked in cycle 1 did not count looking at solutions or adding up my score
** I kept strict score according to checkmarks and with a simplified method (1 point for fully correct, .5 for partially correct) and ended up with the same % both ways so in subsequent cycles switched to the simplified method
***My 3rd and subsequent cycles were done on chessable.

ADVICE:
- Calculate out all important variations before making a move!! The authors stress this but it is very easy to skip.
- Use simplified scoring system (1 point for correct, .5 points for partial) vs. complex checkmark system
- Your time will magically get much faster each cycle so be ambitious for your first cycle!
- Trust the process. Yes, you can spend your ~2 months solving twice the tactics instead of doing this method, but I have faith that doing half the tactics 7 times in an intensive training program will pay much better long-term dividends

[Justin Pickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a puzzle book, one of the better ones. There are online course versions of this book as well as a print edition. Get the latter. My experience is that using the print edition and doing the puzzles on a real board is excellent for chess improvement (along with learning openings). Indeed, my performance in tournaments over the past year (I gained about 400 points at 42-years-old) was positively correlated with how many over-the-board puzzles I did in the preceding weeks.

“Life is a puzzle to be solved, rather than chaos to be endured.” (p. 14)

The puzzles in this book are from world champions’ games and are broken up into sections by difficulty. No doubt, doing the puzzles multiple times, and aiming for faster completion in each iteration, as the “method” involves, would be useful, albeit time consuming. However, it might be more efficient and possibly equally effective to only repeat the puzzles you failed, after adequate spacing (waiting for a period of time), and then to move on to other puzzle books.

[molas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is addressed to chess players and shows (according to authors) how quickly increase playing strength. The method in nutshell consists of repeated solution of hundreds of tactical exercises, albeit faster every next time. Authors claim that in this way the player can increase his/her ranking rapidly. One of them, International Master Tikkanen, after implementing the Woodpecker Method scored quickly three GM norms. The book is mainly the collection of tactical exercises and their solutions. Only on thirty pages (out of 400) the authors describe the method and give instructions.

When I read the introductory chapter I had a strong feeling of deja vu, well this book essentially repeats the seven circles method proposed by Michael de la Maza in his book 'Rapid Chess Improvement'. De la Maza claimed that implementing his method gained him many ranking points, but the whole story is completely unconvincing for me. First, the fact that Ms Tikkannen and de la Maza benefited from above method does not mean that every other chess player will. Second, seven circles or woodpecker method put excessive and in fact exclusive weight on tactics completely ignoring other aspects of development of the chess player. Third, respected chess coaches and writers, IM Silman, IM Dvoretsky, NM Heisman, GM Nunn do not support this method, some of them (Silman) ridicule it. So I think this method is kind of curiosity, which should not be taken very seriously. At least the book is a good collection of tactical exercises, one of the many on the market, nothing more.

[Ricky Pruitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I improve? I believe so. Do I hurt? Yes. Will I do it again? Ask me when I'm 1600+. I'm proud I finished, but that was a brutal journey.

Revised: Months later, I'm still feeling burnt out by this book. I had to deduct a star.

[Veselin Nikolov · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of chess puzzles. The advanced part was too advanced for me but it was short and I had fun with everything else.

[Abdullah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm thinking there was an issue with downloading the digital version because all the diagrams of the board are squares and the annotation looked like gibberish. I was looking forward to the challenge as a beginner for more insight as this was recommended by a training/coach I follow.

[Isaac Clemente ríos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de un mes de trabajo con el libro, y tras haber finalizado la primera ronda, hago la review.

El contenido es una serie de ejercicios (1168) divididos en niveles fácil, intermedio y difícil. Los autores se basan en el método de los 7 círculos de De la Maza, para mejorar en ajedrez. En esencia, se trata de resolver una serie de problemas tácticos en un periodo de tiempo cada vez menor. Primero en un mes, después en dos semanas, una, y así hasta hacerlos todos en un solo día. Lo cual tomó al IM Kostya Kavutskiy unas siete horas y media. Aún estoy temblando cuando me toque a mi.

Interesante para jugadores con un elo superior a 1500, creo que por debajo de ese nivel se debe hacer bastante cuesta arriba.

En mi caso lo he comprado en la plataforma chessable, lo cual hace más cómoda la resolución y repetición de los problemas.

Me ha gustado mucho, ya veremos los resultados.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is pretty much the non-flaky version of de la Maza which was a notoriously hyped book on how to cram study for Tactical Chess Problems for fast results.

That book was pretty much snake oil and this book is the equivalent for masters trying to break through into grandmaster territory. Burn through tactical studies and then repeat those studies over and over till you get faster results.

I'm not sure if this is a path that 98% of people would take, and Silman ridicules this method as well as a few others. Silman always has some pretty strong opinions, but at least he explains why he likes or dislikes certain things.

I think others have stated, this of this book as a relatively interesting collection of difficult tactical problems, and laugh at the ridiculous but gutsy path a few people try out to get 'Speed Learn' results.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very respectable book on tactics if you discount the method.

[Wyatt Lindvall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I genuinely think this book is responsible for ~200 elo gain. They say chess is 99% tactics and holy shit this is as far as I know the single best way to reinforce tactical patterns

[Muhammad Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

الكتاب مافيه هري كتير، تمارين اشتغل وبعدها العب وأكسب. ممتاز جداً

[Collin Holson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may never make it to the "finished" shelf. It's a fantastic tool for chess improvement and is designed to be revisited over and over again.