The Woodpecker Method

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  • The Woodpecker Method

    The Woodpecker Method

    June 22, 2018

    Sometimes a chess book will come out with a title that just makes it seem the most attractive thing in the world to me – a must buy. Recent titles like this were The Double Queen’s Gambit by Bezgodov and Python Strategy by Petrosian.

    Today, another title piqued my interest. Here is the book announcement:

    From:

    https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/produ...hans_tikkanen/

    The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith & Hans Tikkanen

    “The Woodpecker Method is the name given by Axel Smith to a training system developed by his compatriot and co-author Hans Tikkanen. After training with his method in 2010, Tikkanen achieved three GM norms within a seven-week period.

    The quick explanation of the Woodpecker Method is that you need to solve a large number of puzzles in a row; then solve the same puzzles again and again, only faster. It’s not a lazy shortcut to success – hard work is required. But the reward can be re-programming your unconscious mind. Benefits include sharper tactical vision, fewer blunders, better play when in time trouble and improved intuition.

    This book contains everything you need to carry out your own Woodpecker training. Smith and Tikkanen explain how to get the maximum benefit from the method, before presenting over 1100 puzzles and solutions, all of which have been checked and double-checked for accuracy and suitability.

    GM Axel Smith is the award-winning author of Pump Up Your Rating and e3 Poison, both of which were enthusiastically received by readers and reviewers. Using the Woodpecker as part of his training, as an adult he improved from a rating of 2100 to becoming a Grandmaster.

    GM Hans Tikkanen is a four-time Swedish Champion whose live rating peaked over 2600. His interest in chess-improvement methods, and how they work, led him to study for a degree in psychology.”

    Expected Publication (hardcover) 1 August 2018

    Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-78483-055-7

    ________

    Excerpts from the book:

    Woodpecker History

    By Hans Tikkanen

    “First, I decided on the general rules of the method. I would solve a set of a thousand exercises (from various puzzle books) over whatever time period it took. Once I completed the set, I would take a break and then repeat the process again and again, getting faster each time. I checked my answers against the solutions given in the back of the book, and computer-checked in cases when I did not fully buy the solution provided by the author. (The frustration I feel when an exercise does not make sense has served as a great motivator to make the solutions in this book as accurate as possible!)

    Being a chess professional, I had very few commitments distracting me from working hard on the solving. Of course, solving exercises in this manner is really hard work, so most days I did not manage a full eight-hour workday; but sometimes I did. Once I reached the end of the set of 1000, I took a well-deserved break, ranging from a full day to over a week. I did no other work on chess during these rest periods, except some playing.

    With each cycle of solving, I aimed to halve the total solving time for the thousand exercises from that of the previous cycle. Eventually I was able to solve all of the puzzles within a single day – though not within eight hours. Initially I intended to repeat the whole process every six weeks. Later, however, I decided that “repeat one set of 1000 exercises before a serious tournament” was more realistic.

    I hardly need state that the process was a demanding one, but I had a lot of motivation – partly from pent-up frustration due to having blundered away important games, but also because I was trying out of my own method. While it was tough on me, one of the books took even more of a beating – completely falling apart from the repeated solving!”

    __________

    A Final Session

    By Axel Smith

    “Before I travelled to Hungary in December 2015 to chase my last GM norm, I solved the same broken book for the 11th and 12th times. I was determined to do something I had been dreaming of for years: completing a full set of exercises in less than 24 hours. I stayed in a basement room next to the block’s laundry and once every full hour I walked around the room. Twice my wife came with freshly-baked bread – and a chance to quit. I was close to quitting when I had a breakdown somewhere towards the end, but the 978th and last exercise finally arrived after 22 hours and 18 minutes.

    There are many possible ways to do the Woodpecker. All of them come down to the same thing: working on the exercises. However, it’s easier to keep on solving if you have a plan. Hans forbade me from recommending the set-up above, for humanitarian reasons. And indeed, my first thought afterwards was “never again”.

    With that being said, the last session was not only tactically beneficial – it also made it easy to stay focused during the games in Hungary. You are not locking yourself in for day and night only to ruin everything by walking around when you are supposed to think.

    Furthermore, for me, the many exercises are connected to the places where I have solved them: the underground in Berlin; a night train to Bucharest; the mountains where I hiked. So those 22 hours in the basement also contained a trip around Europe.”

    https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebook...od-excerpt.pdf


  • #2
    Exactly how is this fundamentally different than de la Maza's "400 points in 400 days" article at Chesscafe, which he later expanded into a fairly thin book. He advocated doing "about 1000" puzzles at a given rate and then repeating it at twice the rate until you had done the full set 7 times. He called this the "seven circles of success" or some such thing. His article and later "book" were responsible for huge sales of CT-ART 3 (which had approsimately 1000 puzzles).

    Steve

    Comment


    • #3
      The Woodpecker Method

      June 22, 2018

      Thank you, Steve, for your reference to de la Maza’s work.

      I have found these references:

      Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael de la Maza

      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ss_Improvement

      Comments from that site:

      This book is hardcore. I did the program and saw a huge improvement in my tactical ability. However, it is quite grueling in the later stages, and it was not uncommon to have headaches afterwards. The program works - if you are capable of completing it! (The concept is 5 stars, but the book itself is padded with "fluff"... thus 3 stars)

      _________

      If you're going to read this book, there's essentially only 30 pages of good material while the rest is just salesman talk. De la Maza provides what seems like revolutionary theories and thoughts that any adult inexperienced player can relate to. My criticism, along with most of the chess world is that you have to adopt a style of play and begin to learn openings and techniques to advance fully. Full focus on tactics can only get you so far but it is none the less instrumental. I provided this book with a low rating for the unnecessary pages of tactics, half-baked theories, and reviews on the Seven Circles and vision drills.

      ________

      Checked this out from the library, and I'm sort of glad I didn't buy it. There's really only about 25-30 pages of actual content in here, the rest is attestations, background, and his personal story. At times, the book reads like an infomercial.

      That said, those 25-30 pages are extremely valuable. If you follow de la Maza's recommendations to the letter, you'll be spending many hours per day over the span of five months training yourself to play better. While I expect very few will go whole hog on this, I do see where his techniques should improve my play quite a bit.

      Recommended for chapters 2 and 3. Snag it from your local library if you can, get a cheap used copy otherwise. I don't think it's worth full retail.

      See also:

      The Michael de la Maza Story

      https://www.chess.com/article/view/t...-la-maza-story

      https://www.chess.com/forum/view/gen...-in-400-days-1

      https://www.chess.com/forum/view/che...a-work-for-you

      Ojas’ journey: 400 rating points in 38 days

      https://en.chessbase.com/post/ojas-j...nts-in-37-days

      _________

      Too much to read here to answer your question.

      Has anyone tried the de la Maza method?

      Comment


      • #4
        After doing a bit of rummaging around I found the following reviews of de la Maza's book "Rapid Chess Improvement". There is one on Jeremy Silman's current site and two additional ones on his old site (courtesy the wayback machine):

        Jeremy Silman:
        http://www.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/...nt-77p3511.htm

        John Donaldson:
        https://web.archive.org/web/20120121...ss_improv.html

        Randy Bauer:
        https://web.archive.org/web/20120121...ss_improv.html

        Also courtesy of the wayback machine is a review on Chesscafe before they went paywall then crap:
        https://web.archive.org/web/20101207.../review328.pdf

        The book is still available but I would caution people about buying it. As most of the reviews note, it is extremely padded and much of it reads like an infomercial. The book is essentially an expanded version of an article which, thanks to the magic of the wayback machine is still available:

        Part 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20110717...kittles148.pdf

        Part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20110717...kittles150.pdf

        De la Maza's method will definitely help improve your tactics. The problem with doing it is twofold: first is finding the time. Second is in being dedicated to see the program through. It also won't help other aspects of play where weaknesses can doom your play (poor endgame technique, poor middlegame planning, falling into a trap in the opening, etc.)

        I haven't read all of the reviews thoroughly but I should note that at the time he published his book del la Maza's rating was 2041. It appears that he hasn't played a rated game since that time.

        Steve

        Comment


        • #5
          The Woodpecker Method

          June 25, 2018

          From Jacob Aagaard at Quality Chess

          The Woodpecker Method

          June 22nd, 2018

          We have sent off the Woodpecker Method to the printer on Wednesday. We have to unscramble our brains and work out what that means regarding the publication date, especially after a personal change with our printer, meaning some things have to be relearned there. But it is coming and it is coming soon. The final page count is 392 pages, but as you should go through it many times, by design, it is much more than this!

          Hello,

          Can you please tell us what kind of positions for solving will be in the book, and how many of them?

          Andrew Greet

          June 22nd, 2018

          Exercises are split into three sections: Easy (222); Intermediate (762); Advanced (144) for a total of 1,128 test positions.

          Readers are instructed to start from the beginning and solve an appropriate number of exercises (the authors explain how to determine what number is right for you), before repeating the cycle a number of times. If it works as planned, you will finish the process a far better tactician than when you started.

          http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/6557

          Comment


          • #6
            The Woodpecker Method

            July 19, 2018

            Yesterday, in The Week in Chess

            Mark Crowther:

            The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith and Hans Tikkanen

            http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/produc...hans_tikkanen/

            has just been published on ForwardChess This one I've been really been looking forward to. Took me by surprise it came out today.

            Comment


            • #7
              Don't let your kids search for this book on Amazon.ca.

              Comment

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