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The Woodpecker Method: What It Does Well, and Where It Falls Short
If you have spent any time in chess training circles, you will have come across the Woodpecker Method. It comes from the book of the same name by Axel Smith and Hans Tikkanen, and the idea is disarmingly simple: take a fixed set of tactical puzzles, solve them all, then solve the same set again, faster, and keep repeating until the patterns are second nature. Like a woodpecker hammering at the same spot, repetition does the work. It has a devoted following and a fair number of sceptics. Having looked at both sides, here is an honest account of the method's strengths and weaknesses.
