My Woodpecker Experience | Dojo Book Reviews
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- IM Kostya Kavutskiy reviews his experience of working through The Woodpecker Method (via Chessable) and shows two examples from his play where the intense calculation training was felt.
Check out all of Kostya's original Woodpecker streams here: • GM Training: The Woodp...
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Dang Kostya, you're so humble ... you CRUSHED that guy! 😂
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
Great to hear, good luck!
What's your experience with this method so far? Thank you
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
Whole book- first cycle- 32 days !! Even advanced exercises?
Superb!!
You’re weird.
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 the feedback. Personally, i prefer doing tactics on book, writing down solutions, than on computer/phone
How do you use it? Solve all the puzzles first and see the answer, or solve one and see the answer
This is great Kostya. Amazing how much you produce as a coach and a helper all around. Much appreciated.
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 found it mostly neat! I'm sure some players will recognize certain positions but they are still worth knowing
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…?
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
Nice, good luck!
Hey Jay, after two years has you elo been increased?
Brilliant combination that was
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!
I did not record the time spent -- I believe chessable does but I didn't really pay attention to it. Most players probably use something like Excel/Google Sheets
Pen and paper has just been released
wouldnt it be better to do the book with spaced repetition ?
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.
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
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.
Exact opposite for me lol. I often consider philidor sacrifices (a piece for 2 pawns) especially around the king so i found Qd2 instantly but didnt see Rh8 and sadly I doubt I would have seen it outside of a classical time control game.
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?
Of course!
If you use Chessable there's Common Patterns, Checkmate Patterns and the 1001 Chess Exercises for beginners providing ramped difficulty. Just set the reviews for 4 weeks later and start solving, stop and take a day off when the first reviews appear.
The actual Woodpecker book doesn't have enough easier examples for non-elite players so in my experience sourcing other material is better, though you can split time between books.
After first cycle, my accuracy is high enough not to bother setting the review date, I just let Chessable schedule repetition of errors so more attention is given to weaknesses, then set review date when I plan the next cycle.
After a 2 breaks of a year or more, redoing the book avoided just memorising specific examples and not looking at the positions properly.
Rh8, that is mind blowing
I wouldn't had come up with the idea that he played even if I had a full year to figure it out. xD
That's how I used to feel about Shirov's and Kasparov's games. After many years of hard work, I now have a chance of finding their moves. Keep training! :) -Kostya
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.
Thanks Jim! Hopefully the answer to that question is yes :)
Would you recommend this book for someone who is 1300 if not what would you recommend to improve my tactics, thanks
He said in the video that this book is suited for 1700+. If you are below that range you can only make use of the easy section.
@@nobroo5264 trying to find the most productive way to improve my chess, easy to get lost in things ain’t it
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 I meant to put it like that! Indeed the book problems are much better than random tactics
Hey Kostya. Would you recommend buying the book or purchasing the Chessable course ?
Thanks in advance.
Both are good! This book definitely works well for the Chessable format
thank you, great video
This sounds very similar to De La Maza's Rapid Chess Improvement. Is that correct? Or is there a difference here?
I think it's pretty similar!
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!
Start with the easier one :)
I'm working with this book in conjuction with Chess Structures
By Mauricio Flores Rios ?
@@Robertl-xz6yl yeah, exactly
@@SonicCovers ah I just started studying that! How far in are you? Are u reading all of it / still studying it? R u finding it’s improving ur chess much so far ?
@@Robertl-xz6yl Im still reading them! And yes,I feel like I've improved my game
@@SonicCovers what’s ur OTB rating ? I’ve read the first chapter on the Isolani and found it instructive but maybe a bit too high level for me? I could visualise the variations and had to play them out otb
Going through Test Your Chess iq took me from 1600 to 1800
Thank you sir it give me motivation
Because repetition aides in remembering long term.
excellent
I gonna read this book 📚
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..???
No need!
Would puzzle rush be the best method for this without the book?
Would suggest custom puzzles on either chesscom/Lichess. Also check out the review of CT-Art tactics app
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?
If you mean after Qf4, then White has Qh6+ and Qh8# :)
@@ChessDojo I meant after Rh1, but yeah; Can't stop Qh6.
It's just "7 circles" by Michael de la Maza recycled by Aagaard's 'Quality Chess'
I like the puzzles - Kostya
Hello.sir my question is what book do you recommend to intermediate players?
We have lots of recommendations if you search our channel for 'books' :)
Hi, thanks for the video. Did you need to solve some copyright issues? I mean, streaming whole book/course on your channel...
On the contrary it’s probably just free marketing
@@vatsala6497 Well, if you have audience, then yes. But can we generalize it?
doubt it under fair use
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...
5:45
You're welcome.
🥲
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
Most read it on Chessable 🙂
Day 100 of knocking my head against the door, still struggling to evolve anti-shock capabilities.
volume up
Good shit
Bro put a video on king indian attack opening
Bro you provide.. Cochig class.. Personal,, i am an intermediate play..
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.
No mate u are wrong