Feature · Mistake Review

Mistake Review

Mistake Review is the spaced-repetition system in ChessWoodie. It keeps the puzzles you get wrong and brings each one back the next day, then at gradually longer gaps for as long as you keep solving it. Patterns you have not learned yet come round often, and the ones you already know fade out of rotation. There is no list to manage and nothing to mark for review. It runs while you train.

What is tracked

Only the puzzles you get wrong are tracked. Solving one correctly tells you the pattern is already there, so there is little point reviewing it. Getting one wrong shows a gap, and closing that gap is what the queue is for.

How the timing works

Why the gap between reviews matters

The timing is the part that does the work. Re-solve a puzzle a minute after seeing its answer and you are mostly repeating what is still in short-term memory, which changes little. Leave it until the next day, once the details have faded, and solving it again takes a real attempt. That attempt, the effort of pulling the idea back out yourself, is what fixes the pattern in place.

That is also why the gaps grow. Each time you recall a puzzle correctly it has earned a longer wait, because there is little to gain from reviewing something you already know. The schedule keeps stretching the ones you have learned further out and circling back to the ones you keep missing, so your attention stays on the positions that still need it.

A puzzle comes back when recalling it has started to take effort, not while it is still fresh in your head. Spacing the reviews out is the point, not a side effect.

Reviewing too soon

Re-solving a puzzle moments after seeing its answer mostly tests short-term memory. It feels easy, and little of it lasts.

Reviewing after a gap

Re-solving it later, once the details have faded, takes genuine recall. The longer the gap you can still solve it across, the more firmly the pattern has set.

What happens

What happens to a puzzle you get wrong

You do not flag puzzles, keep a list, or pick what to revise. From the moment you answer, the steps below run on their own.

01 Miss

It goes into your review queue

Get a puzzle wrong and it is added to the queue straight away. On Premium, puzzles you solved correctly but slowly are added as well, on the basis that a pattern you can only find slowly is not yet automatic.

Automatic

02 Next day

It comes back the next day

Its first review is set for the following day rather than the same session, so that solving it again takes real recall instead of repeating what you have just seen.

Spaced

03 In review

Engine analysis if you want it

While reviewing a position you can turn on engine analysis to see the refutation and the stronger line and confirm you understand why the move works. This is a Premium feature, available on any position in review.

Premium

04 Over time

The gap widens, or resets

Solve it and the next review moves further out; keep solving it and it moves further still. Miss it and it returns to the next day. So the puzzles you have learned show up less and less, and your reviews keep narrowing onto the ones you have not.

Adaptive

A review session is just the puzzles that are due that day, usually a short batch you can clear in a few minutes.

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A caution

Review the idea, not the move

There is a wrong way to review a mistake, and it feels productive. You see the answer, you nod, you move on, and the next time the position comes round you play the same move with no idea why it works. The puzzle turns green, your accuracy ticks up, and you have learned nothing you can use in a real game.

The point of review is the pattern underneath the move: the loose piece, the overloaded defender, the back-rank weakness that made the tactic possible. Recognise the idea and it carries into a hundred positions you have never seen. Memorise the move and it carries into exactly one.

⚠️

If a position only feels familiar because you have seen the answer before, you have memorised it, not learned it. Look for the reason the tactic works, name the motif to yourself, and ask whether you could find it in a position that looked nothing like this one. That is the difference between passing the puzzle and owning the pattern.

How it fits in

How it works with the cycles

ChessWoodie is built on the Woodpecker Method: you solve a fixed set of puzzles in repeated cycles, getting faster each time, until the patterns become automatic. The cycles bring your whole set back on a set schedule, treating every position the same.

Mistake Review runs alongside the cycles and treats your misses differently. Rather than waiting for the next cycle to come round, it pulls the puzzles you got wrong forward and schedules them on their own, more often at first and less often as you learn them. The cycles cover everything; Mistake Review puts the extra repetition where you keep going wrong.

The two are separate but complementary. There is more on the cycles, and on the Woodpecker Method behind them, on the Repetition Cycles page.

FAQ

Common questions

What is mistake review in chess training?

Mistake review means going back over the puzzles you got wrong to fix the pattern underneath them, instead of moving straight on to new ones. In ChessWoodie every miss is added to a spaced-repetition queue automatically and brought back the next day, then at widening intervals, so the correction is reinforced before it fades.

Why not review a mistake immediately, while it is fresh?

You can look at the solution straight away, but reviewing a position seconds after seeing the answer mostly tests short-term memory. Spaced repetition waits until the memory has started to fade, then brings the position back so recalling the move takes real effort. That effortful recall, repeated at growing intervals, is what moves the pattern into long-term memory.

Does ChessWoodie bring missed puzzles back later?

Yes. Every missed puzzle is added to a spaced-repetition queue and first comes back the next day in a short batch. Each time you recall it correctly the next review is pushed further out; if you miss it, it returns the next day again. One mistake gets several spaced chances to become a pattern.

Can I see why my move was wrong?

On any reviewed position you can call up engine analysis on demand to see the refutation and the better line, so you understand the idea rather than just memorising the answer. Engine analysis is a Premium feature.

Is reviewing mistakes better than just solving more puzzles?

For building lasting recognition, yes. An endless stream of new puzzles mostly rehearses what you already see and lets your blind spots survive untouched. Reviewing the exact positions you missed targets those gaps directly, which is the core logic of the Woodpecker Method that ChessWoodie is built on.

Try it on your own mistakes

Mistake Review is part of ChessWoodie and runs automatically as you train. It is included on the free plan; Premium adds engine analysis in review and also queues the puzzles you solve too slowly.

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Explore other features

Mistake Review is one part of the ChessWoodie loop.