My Woodpecker Experience | Dojo Book Reviews 

Dang Kostya, you're so humble ... you CRUSHED that guy! 😂

This is great Kostya. Amazing how much you produce as a coach and a helper all around. Much appreciated.

thank you, great video

Im going to do a few cycles of the easy problems, i just did about 50 with 86% in a bit over an hour. Im looking forward to crushing this book, even tho ill have to be much more patient than someone who is already an IM!

Thanks for this man! I started the method yesterday, using your videos and solving puzzles along side you. It's boring when you solve alone all the time. :D

Brilliant combination that was

I read wood peaker story..a man got three gm norm within six months after doing wood peaker course...I really appreciate this method of improving calculations

Thank you sir it give me motivation

I think using nothing but world champion tactics is neat but can be counter productive since as you said a well studied player will find it easier than its actually supposed to be (pattern recognition). I'm very excited about going through the woodpecker since I dont study master games outside of morphy and a few carlsen games ive seen (i focus on my own play and model games of openings i like)

I'll go through it for myself first then I'll watch you go through it as a nice recap (tactical program post mortem i guess lol) this review has me super excited to go through it

I would be curious to hear from others who aren’t already a titled player if this book made a significant difference in their playing ability. Comment section…?

Whole book- first cycle- 32 days !! Even advanced exercises? Superb!!

Thanks for the feedback. Personally, i prefer doing tactics on book, writing down solutions, than on computer/phone

As an at best advanced beginner I certainly wouldn’t have found a lot of the moves. In the first one I was focused on the queen and bishop on the diagonal

Rh8, that is mind blowing

I gonna read this book 📚

excellent

kostya which exercise book do you think i should buy? should it be 1200 chess workout by richard palliser part 2 or woodpecker method? I have completed the part 1 and it really helped me improve my tactical eye so i am confused.. I dont consider myself a advanced player like 1900 FIDE my current fide is 1156 coz i have not played a FIDE tourney for the last 1.5 years due to covid i estimate that my fide will be around 1600 since i have improved since then a lot (i completed reassess ur chess by silman too its was very instructive)and my performance in my last tourney was 1291 and it was only my 2nd tourney of my life... i consider the palliser book to be around 1000-1600 as 70% of its puzzles are of that category pls help me!

found Rh8 almost instantly , but oh man! It would have been impossible for me to calculate that the moment you played Qd2 cause the Rb7 defense was not obvious for me, I would say Qd2 was far far far more difficult to find.

Sir, I have a question.. I have a book related Query. I have with me *Dvoretsky Endgame Manual* 2nd edition. Do I need to once again buy the 2020 released 5th edition of the above mentioned same book ..once again..???

Both of those positions from your own games were very instructional, and inspiring! It was also very helpful when you indicated how far you had calculated a variation OTB before pulling the trigger to make the move. (Often in chess books, New in Chess magazine, etc., it's not clear where a player's OTB calculation stopped and where their postmortem chess engine analysis continued.) One important question every player faces, particularly when deciding whether to proceed with a sacrifice is: I can't see all the way to mate. Should I sac anyway? Your comment helps inform that decision.

6:02 is where the rubber hits the road. A couple of issues arise, one psychological rather than strictly chess related. Firstly, is the tendency to salvage good from an investment of time which did not produce hoped for results. Not a bad thing but an interesting facet of human experience that is healthy and productive. Secondly, going back to the drawing board, what does one need to do to improve tournament results if this sort of method does not deliver? Now, for a lower rated player I would suspect this method would, indeed, produce improved tournament results. Yet for an already accomplished player it seems a different level of study would be more beneficial in terms of tournament results, such as would be a more concurable goal because, let's face it, "I got better at doing tactics problems but not at tournament chess" is not a great sales pitch.

Hello, thanks for this feedback! A small practical question: in this method, you're supposed to record the time you spend solving the problem, record if you were right or not on the first go. On the second cycle, thanks to this records, you're supposed to check if you did better than the first time. My question is: if you did it this way, did you manage to find a tool/app allowing you to save all this information easily? Thanks!

This sounds very similar to De La Maza's Rapid Chess Improvement. Is that correct? Or is there a difference here?

So if I solve say 500/1148 puzzles in the woodpecker method, would I then complete that set until I can do it all in one day, and then start on the remaining puzzles? How exactly does the Woodpecker method account for the remaining puzzles after a whole set has been done to completion?

wouldnt it be better to do the book with spaced repetition ?

Because repetition aides in remembering long term.

Hello.sir my question is what book do you recommend to intermediate players?

I'm working with this book in conjuction with Chess Structures

I wouldn't had come up with the idea that he played even if I had a full year to figure it out. xD

Going through Test Your Chess iq took me from 1600 to 1800

Hey Kostya. Would you recommend buying the book or purchasing the Chessable course ? Thanks in advance.

Good shit

Would you recommend this book for someone who is 1300 if not what would you recommend to improve my tactics, thanks

I think kostya is incorrect about the book puzzles being equivalent to chesscom puzzles as training value goes. The book puzzles were so much more instructive and thematic than chesscom tactics. Not to mention chesscom and lichess puzzles arent annotated.

Not sure if I got my answer. Let's iterate: you're an IM for some while and perhaps at your peak or close to. Even if you become a GM, you're still way up there. It's very hard for an IM to improve on tactics, I guess. But say, a 1400-1600, will this exercise have serious practical meaning?

Hey! If I get the book is there any online resource attached to it in order to easily set up all the positions? Or we are expected to set them up either on a program in the pc or on a physical board? Thanks in advance

Would puzzle rush be the best method for this without the book?

It's just "7 circles" by Michael de la Maza recycled by Aagaard's 'Quality Chess'

Hi, thanks for the video. Did you need to solve some copyright issues? I mean, streaming whole book/course on your channel...

If your opponent had more time couldn't he have just played Bf7, blocking your queen and lining up his queen to protect the knight?

volume up

5:45 You're welcome.

Bro put a video on king indian attack opening

The method is interesting, but isn't quite obvious that one chess player will improve visualization and calculation skills by doing this kind of tactical exercises 2-3 hours a day for months? I suspect you could achieve the same results doing just normal tactics instead of repeating them as the method suggests...

Bro you provide.. Cochig class.. Personal,, i am an intermediate play..

Day 100 of knocking my head against the door, still struggling to evolve anti-shock capabilities.

Sound as boring as doing the same middle school math problems over and over. Sure you will do basic arithmetic blazing fast but you will likely be more cuckoo than Bobby from the mental torture.