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Woodpecker method training: 431,000 Puzzles, 60,000 Rated Games, and +35 Elo

This is a pretty interesting platform and study. Congratulations!

This is a pretty interesting platform and study. Congratulations!

@The_Knight_Man_03 said ^

where do you get these puzzles?

We used puzzles from https://database.lichess.org/#puzzles and applied popularity, rating deviation, theme, and other filters to construct the puzzle sets.

@The_Knight_Man_03 said [^](/forum/redirect/post/9eALPv6W) > where do you get these puzzles? We used puzzles from https://database.lichess.org/#puzzles and applied popularity, rating deviation, theme, and other filters to construct the puzzle sets.

The woodpecker method, solving the same set of tactical puzzles across repeated cycles to build automatic pattern recognition

The woodpecker method also involves making the cycles successively shorter, forcing you to solve them faster and faster. I've just been using spaced repetition for my puzzles without making them faster and faster, trusting that I'll get faster at them naturally. I've been setting a time limit on a given puzzle (3 minutes), but I haven't been trying to force my speed beyond that. I'm wondering if I should change my strategy.

> The woodpecker method, solving the same set of tactical puzzles across repeated cycles to build automatic pattern recognition The woodpecker method also involves making the cycles successively shorter, forcing you to solve them faster and faster. I've just been using spaced repetition for my puzzles without making them faster and faster, trusting that I'll get faster at them naturally. I've been setting a time limit on a given puzzle (3 minutes), but I haven't been trying to force my speed beyond that. I'm wondering if I should change my strategy.

Users who consistently did tactics improved.

Shocker

Users who consistently did tactics improved. Shocker

Hey, I didn't know about this site. I'll give it a try and it seems interesting. I've always been intrigued by the Woodpecker method, but I was too lazy to try it. This site makes it simpler, and having the statistics to see your progress in each cycle is interesting.

Although I think I made a mistake with the difficulty. I chose casual player and in 35 minutes I solved 162 puzzles, with 93% accuracy and an average of 11 seconds. I'll keep testing it for a while to see what results it gives.

Good job!

Hey, I didn't know about this site. I'll give it a try and it seems interesting. I've always been intrigued by the Woodpecker method, but I was too lazy to try it. This site makes it simpler, and having the statistics to see your progress in each cycle is interesting. Although I think I made a mistake with the difficulty. I chose casual player and in 35 minutes I solved 162 puzzles, with 93% accuracy and an average of 11 seconds. I'll keep testing it for a while to see what results it gives. Good job!

Sadly tells us very little without a control group. Would be great to take a group of chess improvers and split them into either woodpecker style training or just using a standard tactics trainer as that is the main question here. Does the repetition of tactics produce greater benefit than just doing new ones?

I use spaced repetition for tactics sets and think it is helpful but I'm surprised a method as popular as the woodpecker has never been properly tested for efficacy. Probably because if the result came back that is was about the same as a generic tactics trainer it would ruin a lot of people's days... and walllets.

Sadly tells us very little without a control group. Would be great to take a group of chess improvers and split them into either woodpecker style training or just using a standard tactics trainer as that is the main question here. Does the repetition of tactics produce greater benefit than just doing new ones? I use spaced repetition for tactics sets and think it is helpful but I'm surprised a method as popular as the woodpecker has never been properly tested for efficacy. Probably because if the result came back that is was about the same as a generic tactics trainer it would ruin a lot of people's days... and walllets.
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@MojoDojoCasaHouse said ^

Sadly tells us very little without a control group. Would be great to take a group of chess improvers and split them into either woodpecker style training or just using a standard tactics trainer as that is the main question here. Does the repetition of tactics produce greater benefit than just doing new ones?

I use spaced repetition for tactics sets and think it is helpful but I'm surprised a method as popular as the woodpecker has never been properly tested for efficacy. Probably because if the result came back that is was about the same as a generic tactics trainer it would ruin a lot of people's days... and walllets.

I'm thinking simple polling might answer this to a sufficient level certainty -- poll the grandmasters. did they repeat the same puzzles over and over? what percentage of gms did and what didn't?

@MojoDojoCasaHouse said [^](/forum/redirect/post/mQxRNln1) > Sadly tells us very little without a control group. Would be great to take a group of chess improvers and split them into either woodpecker style training or just using a standard tactics trainer as that is the main question here. Does the repetition of tactics produce greater benefit than just doing new ones? > > I use spaced repetition for tactics sets and think it is helpful but I'm surprised a method as popular as the woodpecker has never been properly tested for efficacy. Probably because if the result came back that is was about the same as a generic tactics trainer it would ruin a lot of people's days... and walllets. I'm thinking simple polling might answer this to a sufficient level certainty -- poll the grandmasters. did they repeat the same puzzles over and over? what percentage of gms did and what didn't?