I bought rapid chess improvement when it first came out. Though it could’ve been much more concise it was ground breaking for me. I had a collection of books including Sillmans and they didn’t help me. Just doing the piece moves helped me get a better handle on the knight, and other pieces working together. Then using Ct Art accelerated my play where I was beating people who I couldn’t beat previously. It is much easier to use programs to practice tactics than a book. When I saw the book wood pecker method I bought it and immediately thought of rapid chess improvement. I was totally unaware of the controversy until recently. As much fluff as Rapid Chess improvement had in it, the book was way more helpful than all the other larger books filled with even more fluff. I have nothing against Sillman but found it interesting but not helpful.
This episode is brought to you in part by Chessable. It provides a great way to train with and learn the Woodpecker Method. Check it out here: www.chessable.com/the-woodpecker-method/course/10582/
Nicely discussed. Discussion came out with interesting knowledge. Spaced Repeatations is not only for Tactics, it can be used everywhere..even our during academic studies too. But yes Tactic being the major part of decisive chess, play a big role. But whatever rating improves after Woodpecker method, quoted ,cannot be solely attributed to that method...bcz with time, practice, chess player grows in other aspects too.
@@jsega996 no haven't improved, in my last OTB tournament I lost around 40 points. I spend around an hour per day on chessable (using their timer, set to 1 hr) and am currently going through Winning chess tactics, the art of attack in chess, 1001 chess exercises for beginners, woodpecker method, winning chess strategies and winning chess endgames. In a couple weeks I am going into another OTB tournament and will see how many points I will lose.
4 месяца назад
@@angryoldcanadian3905 Are you having practice games? If so, are you analyzing them?
Yes and Yes. I review all my games. First I try to find where the key moves were in the game and then check with stockfish. I tend to avoid quick games as well the quickest time control I use is 5 min with 5sec increments. When I play longer games it is usually against games such as chessmaster. I use chessable on my laptop and chessking courses on my phone / tablet. I also go through GM games with chessbase and use 'guess the move' (free windows program) to go through GM games as well. For openings I use chess opening wizard to build an opening database.
One of the smarter observations I have heard out loud in a while...most books should be an article; most articles should be a paragraph; most paragraphs should be a tweet... Especially in a time when there is so much competition for our time, and the volume of new books, articles, and blogs constantly being written, authors need to be particularly cognizant about not being verbose, repetitive, and diffuse.
I have a question/disagreement about importance of cutting time in half each time. But rather improving your accuracy as the most important as you go thru each time. And dare say you shouldn't be concerned in time at all until you are at least 95% accuracy. Let's say first time I go thru 1000 tactics it takes me 40 hours and I get 50% right and the second time it takes me 45 hours but I get 75% right. And then the third time it takes me 50 hours I get 90% and the fourth time 55 hours and I get 98% I would call that a WIN!!! A huge WIN. Much bigger than second time getting down to 20 hours and 52% right, then 10 hours and 54% and finally 5 hours and 56%.
it also depends on time control though, I generaly agree with your idea, but we also have limited time during a game, so eventually we do need to get the time down.
That would depend on the student. If when you look at the position and remember the exact position then position, if you look at the position and don't remember the exact position but see that the knight is defending two pieces and work out a solution from that than you are learning patterns. You are more likely to learn patterns than positions if you have packet of 1000 positions in a single group rather than 100.
I wish on chessable that I could jump between chapters. Then, for books with each chapter relating to a motif, I could practice a few of each motif at a time instead of having to do all of each motif at once (since the only available page in any chessable course is the next consecutive one).
You can do that. Jusst go to chapter view and select the chapter you want. I find it works best if you pause all content and then selectively unpause the lines or chapters you want to learn.
I used both pro and free versions, the difference is with some options available only for pros. By training everyday, you get a currency to get extra places for books, so consider carefully what you want to get first.
Proving one person has the (huge level) of agency required to subject themselves to this way of learning doesn't actually tell us a great deal about this method for a bigger sample of average chessplayers.
Honestly the woodpecker method is a horrible puzzle book based on my experience of going through myself. The method obviously works, however the vast majority of the puzzles are totally lacking in theme, and many of them include very long variations, just to win a pawn! This totally neglects the possible assessment of the position and all of the strategic factors that should be considered before trying to go for a 7 move combination to get a pawn out of it. If you look at the engine for such combinations, the advantage sometimes is so minor, and regarding practical play, such puzzles may make a players practical chances very hard as the position is harder to play for a human, which begs the question of why such puzzles are even included. Also in many annotations, the authors will say “white’s just winning now” after the solution is a move which doesn’t involve any exchange or change of material! Using a puzzle book sorted by motifs would be more preferable, since the whole point of doing the method is to solidify patterns. The actual woodpecker book lacks the patterns and motifs, and a good ordering of problems, which makes it just ineffective for solidifying the recognitions of patterns in your unconscious.
I bought rapid chess improvement when it first came out. Though it could’ve been much more concise it was ground breaking for me. I had a collection of books including Sillmans and they didn’t help me. Just doing the piece moves helped me get a better handle on the knight, and other pieces working together. Then using Ct Art accelerated my play where I was beating people who I couldn’t beat previously.
It is much easier to use programs to practice tactics than a book. When I saw the book wood pecker method I bought it and immediately thought of rapid chess improvement. I was totally unaware of the controversy until recently.
As much fluff as Rapid Chess improvement had in it, the book was way more helpful than all the other larger books filled with even more fluff. I have nothing against Sillman but found it interesting but not helpful.
An interview with IM Jay Bonin and FM Asa Hoffman, the New York chess legends would be be very nice.
Great stuff, as usual.
Great episode, thank you.
This episode is brought to you in part by Chessable. It provides a great way to train with and learn the Woodpecker Method. Check it out here: www.chessable.com/the-woodpecker-method/course/10582/
Hey Ben, Check the last two timestamps in the description.
Fixed, thank you.
Awesome! These are classic books that I grew up on :)
Nicely discussed. Discussion came out with interesting knowledge. Spaced Repeatations is not only for Tactics, it can be used everywhere..even our during academic studies too. But yes Tactic being the major part of decisive chess, play a big role. But whatever rating improves after Woodpecker method, quoted ,cannot be solely attributed to that method...bcz with time, practice, chess player grows in other aspects too.
I do chessable every day and my rating dropped 200 pts :/
@@jsega996 no haven't improved, in my last OTB tournament I lost around 40 points. I spend around an hour per day on chessable (using their timer, set to 1 hr) and am currently going through Winning chess tactics, the art of attack in chess, 1001 chess exercises for beginners, woodpecker method, winning chess strategies and winning chess endgames. In a couple weeks I am going into another OTB tournament and will see how many points I will lose.
@@angryoldcanadian3905 Are you having practice games? If so, are you analyzing them?
Yes and Yes. I review all my games. First I try to find where the key moves were in the game and then check with stockfish. I tend to avoid quick games as well the quickest time control I use is 5 min with 5sec increments. When I play longer games it is usually against games such as chessmaster.
I use chessable on my laptop and chessking courses on my phone / tablet.
I also go through GM games with chessbase and use 'guess the move' (free windows program) to go through GM games as well.
For openings I use chess opening wizard to build an opening database.
One of the smarter observations I have heard out loud in a while...most books should be an article; most articles should be a paragraph; most paragraphs should be a tweet... Especially in a time when there is so much competition for our time, and the volume of new books, articles, and blogs constantly being written, authors need to be particularly cognizant about not being verbose, repetitive, and diffuse.
Lmao wasn’t this one of the world building points of Fahrenheit 451
I have a question/disagreement about importance of cutting time in half each time. But rather improving your accuracy as the most important as you go thru each time. And dare say you shouldn't be concerned in time at all until you are at least 95% accuracy.
Let's say first time I go thru 1000 tactics it takes me 40 hours and I get 50% right and the second time it takes me 45 hours but I get 75% right. And then the third time it takes me 50 hours I get 90% and the fourth time 55 hours and I get 98% I would call that a WIN!!! A huge WIN. Much bigger than second time getting down to 20 hours and 52% right, then 10 hours and 54% and finally 5 hours and 56%.
it also depends on time control though, I generaly agree with your idea, but we also have limited time during a game, so eventually we do need to get the time down.
For me, the focus on time built bad habits around impulsiveness. I agree completely about accuracy.
It still remains a question to me whether the woodpecker method teaches you positions instead of patterns.
That would depend on the student. If when you look at the position and remember the exact position then position, if you look at the position and don't remember the exact position but see that the knight is defending two pieces and work out a solution from that than you are learning patterns. You are more likely to learn patterns than positions if you have packet of 1000 positions in a single group rather than 100.
I wish on chessable that I could jump between chapters. Then, for books with each chapter relating to a motif, I could practice a few of each motif at a time instead of having to do all of each motif at once (since the only available page in any chessable course is the next consecutive one).
Not that I don’t appreciate chessable’s capabilities to provide access to so much chess content
You can do that. Jusst go to chapter view and select the chapter you want. I find it works best if you pause all content and then selectively unpause the lines or chapters you want to learn.
@@roqsteady5290 Great idea! Will check it out. Thanks!
Do you need chessable pro account to do the spaced learning ?
I used both pro and free versions, the difference is with some options available only for pros. By training everyday, you get a currency to get extra places for books, so consider carefully what you want to get first.
can we request for the tactics card mentioned in this podcast
I had to look at who the expert Neal beat and that dude was born in 1935, and his current floor is 2000 USCF.
Proving one person has the (huge level) of agency required to subject themselves to this way of learning doesn't actually tell us a great deal about this method for a bigger sample of average chessplayers.
Hi there good evening i m brazilian
Honestly the woodpecker method is a horrible puzzle book based on my experience of going through myself. The method obviously works, however the vast majority of the puzzles are totally lacking in theme, and many of them include very long variations, just to win a pawn! This totally neglects the possible assessment of the position and all of the strategic factors that should be considered before trying to go for a 7 move combination to get a pawn out of it. If you look at the engine for such combinations, the advantage sometimes is so minor, and regarding practical play, such puzzles may make a players practical chances very hard as the position is harder to play for a human, which begs the question of why such puzzles are even included. Also in many annotations, the authors will say “white’s just winning now” after the solution is a move which doesn’t involve any exchange or change of material! Using a puzzle book sorted by motifs would be more preferable, since the whole point of doing the method is to solidify patterns. The actual woodpecker book lacks the patterns and motifs, and a good ordering of problems, which makes it just ineffective for solidifying the recognitions of patterns in your unconscious.
Neil Bruce sounds very dogmatic. And I cannot find his FIDE Rating?!
He plays mostly locally in the US, about USCF 1800. As Neal would tell you, he shares what works for him, no one has a secret formula.