The Woodpecker method for older players

I am trying the “woodpecker” training book. To those of you not familiar with it, you do a large set of problems over a month, then do the same set but give yourself only 2 weeks, etc until your 7th pass when you do them all in one day.

I am 59. I think a mentally young 59, but 59 nonetheless.

I don’t know if I can improve my chess at this age. So the woodpecker method will be my test.

I did the 222 “easy” problems plus a half dozen intermediate puzzles my first month, so now I have started the 2 week cycle. Even the easy ones are usually several moves deep. Some were actually easy for me, some were not.

If I cannot do this, I will resign myself to being passed the point of improvement. But I picked a problem side that I think should be doable. If I am able to do it, my next set will be more ambitious. Etc.

So fellow old timers watch this space. I will report back in a couple weeks then again with every new step. I want to give you hope that of I can improve, so can you!

For reference btw my more or less lifetime rating until now has always(!) been class B, comprised mostly of 6 month ventures into tournament chess followed by 5 year vacations from chess. So my history is a little odd, with no long term commitment to improvement, ever. Just little forays.

What results did you get? I'm 40 and I'm considering doing this at some point.

The thing with tactics is that you either have it or you don't, and if you don't then you won't be improving tactically.

You'd be better off learning openings and endgames.

I appreciate Ubik42 sharing this experiment. The question of whether tactical training works for older players is worth testing properly.

The skeptical view that tactical skills are fixed misses something important. The Woodpecker Method is not about developing new calculation ability from scratch. It is about building faster pattern recognition through repetition. This is closer to vocabulary learning or music practice than developing raw cognitive speed. Repetition can work at any age for this type of skill.

The key challenge for older players is usually time and consistency rather than ability. Working through 222+ puzzles in a month requires discipline, and tracking cycles manually adds friction that can derail training.

I have been using Disco Chess for this type of training. It's free and the mobile experience works well for fitting in short sessions during breaks. Seeing concrete data showing that cycle three took half as long as cycle one is motivating and removes the guesswork about whether the method is working.

Would be curious to hear how the experiment went if Ubik42 or others completed multiple cycles.

As a retired college professor of psychology, I have decades of experience in teaching. I also have professional training in cognitive processes such as learning and memory.

With that background, my opinion is that there are much more efficient and effective methods of learning chess. If you complete the woodpecker exercises, you will certainly learn something. However, I think you could learn more, learn more important chess concepts, and learn with less time and effort than using the woodpecker method.

Good luck.