Chess training during Covid-19

It is fair to say that during this Covid-19 crisis, not a lot of work is being done... We have all been advised to stay at home each awaiting our respected government's instructions as to what to do next. In my own individual circumstance, my current job has closed with only limited operations (I still have to do some hours but not as many as usual) and this has suddenly left a great big gaping hole in my life to be filled...

Thankfully there is chess! It is true readers, instead of sitting at home watching hundreds of hours of Netflix TV shows (although I did manage to watch all of Tiger King!), I have been hitting the books hard, solving thousands of tactics puzzles and playing as many games as possible (before I pass out from headache of course). It is fair to say, I am making the most of my newly found freedom!

So today I wanted to share with you what my current training regime involves. Maybe some of you will have some suggestions about how to improve it... 

My current training regime

One of the biggest projects I have recently started doing is finally reviewing my tactics book: "The woodpecker method." The book is a supplement to that of Alex Smith's "Pump up your rating" a book where a (now Grandmaster) chess trainer went through the training methods of the players he coaches.

It is a very good book and worth it even if it is just for the second-half of the book which goes through GM training in detail

Within the book, in one chapter, it talks about doing something known as the "wood-pecker method:" Completing and repeating a large number of tactics till they become ingrained in your head, much like a wood-pecker repeatedly drills a hole with his beak in a tree. The ideas presented in the book are not an entirely new one. Indeed I remember reading a book years ago called Michael De la Maza's "rapid chess improvement" (something that is in fact mentioned in the foreword to the woodpecker method book):

Michael de la Maza argued that, above all else, doing tactics and building your chess vision is paramount to your success in chess. There was no point learning all the middle-game strategies of Reti if you blunder your queen in a game!. Again, he advocated solving a large number of tactics puzzles in a number of days, then repeating the process with less days, slowly imprinting the puzzles into the player's mind! He called this the seven circles method where, by the 7th attempt, you will be able to solve a large number of puzzles in 1 day!

With my copy of the wood-pecker method loaded up on chessable (great for solving them on the computer) I embarked on my puzzle solving adventure! 

A barrier

Boy! Is this puzzle book hard! Each puzzle is taken from a different world chess champion (from Steinitz to Carlsen) with the focus being that if you can play as well as a world champion, you should be doing well. The puzzle book has over 1000 puzzles to solve (a lot if you ask me). 223 puzzles are considered easy and, to be fair, with a little bit of invested time, I was able to solve these eventually - Although some are quite hard. I have provided some of the toughies below (by the way these are considered easy!!!):

The section deemed as intermediate is near impossible! Although I was able to solve some, and in most cases, maybe get the first couple of moves, my percentage of completion was very low, maybe only 50% solved properly. This particular Alekhine position is the stuff of nightmares. So many tactics everywhere! (and it is considered intermediate!!!):

If I was having trouble on the intermediate section of the book, there was no chance that I would survive the dreaded advanced section of the book! I was fully expecting every move to be a brilliancy prize!  

A compromise

I made the decision, instead of climbing to the top of the 1000 puzzle Everest, I would stop half-way at 500 (base camp if you will...). I really didn't want to burn myself out so early on into the clock-down. 500 was still a decent amount of puzzles to get my teeth into.

Endgames

Alongside my tactics study I also got a copy of Jesus de la villa's "100 endgames you should know." I had heard some good reviews about it and the chessable edition is again a very decent resource to use. My study for this has been completing one chapter a day which takes around 30 minutes (although I will need to review the chapters on my next circuit of the book!)

Playing and analysing

The final bit to my intensive (okay maybe not that intensive) training was in the form of playing and analysing. It is fair to say of all the fun I have studying the game, I really don't do enough of playing it...- editor note* (Thepawnslayer's girlfriend) This is total rubbish! For Christmas this year I was gifted the amazing present of a "Squared off" board! I have been using it to it's full potential by playing classical games online with it:

A review of the board provided by Grandmaster Huschenbeth

I have been posting all my games on Youtube with my thoughts on each one. It would be great if you watched them and let me know what you think!

• Day 1 An exciting french?

• Day 2 Deja vu? Another exchange french

• Day 3 Ohhh! Vienna Gambit

• Day 4 Hungarian opening?!

• Day 5 Another Viennese Waltz

• Day 6 King Safety!

• Day 7 Two Knights roller-coaster

In summary of my training regime

• Tactics puzzles - Normally last 1 hour
• Endgames - 30 minutes
• Playing and analysing my game (+upload) - 2 hours

So in total I am training properly for 3 and half hours a day! 

Let me know what you think of my training and whether you think I should do anything differently