On Monday 24th September we will release a Quality Chess book in what for us is a new format: Chessable. In case you are not familiar with Chessable, I offer a couple of extra links: the first about Chessable and the next about the science behind their methods.
My summary: Chessable offers chess courses that are accessible online, and uses a technique based on “spaced-repetition”.
When we decided to experiment by putting one Quality Chess book on Chessable, we needed to decide which book. So, learning and improving using repetition: does that suggest any recent Quality Chess book?
The Woodpecker Method will be available on Chessable from Monday 24th September. The normal Chessable price will be the same as our book, though I would suggest keeping an eye out for an introductory sale price, which is a Chessable tradition.
If this experiment is a success, then we may try other QC books in Chessable format.
I am happy to announce we have a new book on the way: Practical Chess Beauty by Yochanan Afek. To quote from the cover:
“Solving studies is well established as an effective method of chess improvement. In Practical Chess Beauty one of the world’s greatest study composers, Yochanan Afek, shares his finest creations.
Fire your imagination, gain a greater appreciation of chess geometry, and develop a finer feeling for the pieces’ potential by trying to find the ideas hidden in the hundreds of studies in this book. Or simply wonder at some of the most stunning chess moves ever conceived.”
Publishers claiming “our books are great” always look suspicious, given our obvious bias, but this book really is great. There have been so many times in editing when we have boggled at a move, and said: “That can’t possibly work!” But then it does.
The author has framed his book to be useful for the practical player seeking improvement, but it also works wonderfully as pure entertainment. It’s too early for an excerpt (maybe next week) and I will guess at a publication date in late October or the start of November.
I will give one example from the book. White to play and win (I will give the solution next week). The main line is only 5 moves long, but you will do well to spot the winners and the best defensive try. Stretch your brain – do not switch on that engine.
Welcome to the latest Woodpecker Method training blog. It feels strange to say that the training program is approaching its end when I am only up to my third cycle, but the ever-shortening time limits mean that there is, indeed, not much time remaining. First, let me recap my results from previous cycles, using a set of 984 exercises.
1st cycle: 1033 minutes; 88.9% accuracy
2nd cycle: 663 minutes; 93.7% accuracy
Adapting the Schedule
I finished my second cycle on the night of Wednesday the 5th. After taking a look ahead at the number of days before the Olympiad, I decided to bend one of the ‘rules’ of the method, and avoided taking a rest day before starting my third cycle. I wouldn’t normally have skipped the rest day, but if I followed the exact schedule of training days and rest days as prescribed in the book, I would have had to solve 984 exercises in the morning before the first round of the Olympiad!
Despite making that change to save myself a day, the prospect of burnout and insufficient recovery time was still weighing on my mind these past few days. To solve 984 exercises in a day, then plunge straight into a high-level event the very next day, seemed to be asking for trouble. I asked Axel and Hans Read more…
Welcome to the sixth of our weekly Woodpecker Method training blogs. I have one day remaining in my second (14-day) cycle, and I know several of our blog readers are at a similar stage. In last week’s post, I noted my numbers in the second cycle as 450 exercises (222 Easy, 228 Medium), solved at over 95% accuracy in 238 minutes. As of last night, the totals were 858 exercises, with accuracy at 93.8% and time 548 minutes. Average speed and accuracy have declined slightly since last week, which is to be expected, since the Easy exercises made up a significant chunk of last week’s total. Although I don’t yet have a final second-cycle total to compare with my first, it’s obvious that my overall speed and accuracy are on track to be considerably better.
I’ve left myself 126 exercises to solve on the last day, which is a little on the high side, but I should manage it okay – Read more…
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