IM Bonin offers the answers to practical questions that every chessplayer faces as the clock is ticking.
Your second chess book
Solving puzzles is one of the most pleasant training exercises there are. This book of chess puzzles is intended for novice players who can already see simple mates and direct captures, but now wish to move up a level.
The book, containing 275 puzzles, begins with fairly simple tasks and ends with a set of puzzles that are somewhat more challenging.
All of the puzzles are provided with explanations to facilitate the understanding of what happened and the assimilation of tactical patterns.
Zenón Franco Ocampos was born in Asunción, Paraguay, on the 12th of May 1956. After living for many years in Buenos Aires, from the 1990s he has been based in Spain.
He was awarded the 2016 Isaac Boleslavsky Prize by the FIDE Trainers Commission in the ‘author’ section.
In 2016 the Honourable Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay awarded him the National Order of Community Merit, "in recognition of his invaluable and meritorious contribution to Paraguayan sport, with a long and successful sports career in this discipline..."
In 2001 he was named a “Beloved Son of the City of Asunción", by the Municipality of his home town and in 2001 he received the decoration "Honour to Sporting Merit" in 2001, granted by the National Sports Council of Paraguay.
The Polgar Way to Better Chess!
Learn Chess the Right Way is a five-volume chess puzzle book series aimed at the novice, beginner and intermediate level player, using the unique methods of the award-winning coach and former world champion Susan Polgar. It introduces the most important checkmate and material-winning tactics, as well as defensive techniques to the new chess player. Each of the five volumes will consist of 500 puzzles.
In Book 1, the focus is on one-move checkmate exercises. In each of the first five chapters, a specific piece delivers checkmate (in Chapter 1 – the queen, Chapter 2 – the rook, and so on). In Chapters 6-8, checkmates which involve special tactics (such as pins, discovered attacks, etc.) are introduced. Chapter 9 has a mixed collection of puzzles, without any hint about which piece is to deliver checkmate. Chapter 10 builds on the previous 9 chapters, and introduces basic patterns of checkmate in two moves.
With over 40 years of experience as a world-class player and coach, international grandmaster Susan Polgar has developed the most effective way to help young players and beginners – Learn Chess the Right Way. Let her show you the way to understanding the most common and critical patterns and let her show you the way to becoming a better player.
SUSAN POLGAR is a winner of four Women’s World Championships and the top-ranked woman chess player in the United States. She became the #1 woman player in the world at 15 and remained in the top 3 for over 20 years. In 2013, she received the U.S. Coach of the Year Award and the following year, she was named the Chess Trainer of the Year by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She thus became the first person in history to be accorded both honors. Under her guidance, SPICE chess teams at both Texas Tech University and Webster University have won a combined five consecutive National Division I Collegiate Chess Championships.
Volume 2 is all about “winning material” exercises. In each of the first six chapters a certain piece captures an enemy piece (in chapter 1 – The Queen, in chapter 2 – The Rook, and so on). In chapter 7, you will get no hint about which piece should be moved. In chapters 8-12, the most common and important chess tactics (such as decoy, fork, pin, discovery and skewer) are introduced. Finally, in chapter 13, in addition to the previously mentioned patterns, you will need to figure out which tactical pattern to use to win material, including concepts like “trapping a piece” or “intermediate move.”
A new collection of puzzles carefully selected by two experienced trainers.
In Play Like a Champion, Jennifer Shahade showcases the careers and sparkling tactics of some of the most talented and influential players to ever sit at the chessboard, from the first Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik and Grandmaster Hou Yifan to Phiona “Queen of Katwe” Mutesi. Learn the powerful moves of family chess dynasties including the Polgar and the Botez sisters.
Jennifer walks you through essential and inspiring examples of themes such as Double Attack, Removal of the Guard, and Clearance. You’ll get your turn to solve 700 puzzles from the games of more than one hundred pioneering chess champions. The positions are designed to help chess improvers (from beginner to master) to develop their tactical vision.
Solve the positions here, and you too will start to Play Like a Champion.
Jennifer Shahade is a two-time US Women’s Champion, an Olympic chess medalist, and the first female ever to win the US Junior Open. An award-winning writer, host, and speaker, Jennifer is known for making chess more fun and inclusive. She is also the author of Play Like a Girl!, Chess Queens, and Thinking Sideways (2025).
She lives in Philadelphia with her family.
Woman International Master and experienced children’s coach Anastasiya Geller has written a textbook for beginners teaching them the very basics of attacking the enemy king. The reader will learn how to find a simple check and fully master one of the most important tactical elements in chess – checkmate in 1 move! The reader also learns how to choose the best defense against a check.
The book contains 2000 exercises, most of which are checkmates in 1 move – from the simplest mates with one piece to mating using several tactical techniques at once. The first part of the book introduces the concept of check and shows the reader how to recognize a safe check, before teaching discovered check. The second part gradually introduces different types of mate in a logical sequence by the different pieces, beginning with the rook and then progressing to the bishop, queen and knight. The third part of the book explains how to checkmate in one move using key techniques: checkmate with capturing, checkmate with a pawn promotion, checkmate with protection (including checkmate with a pawn), checkmate with pinning, checkmate with a discovered check, and checkmate with a double check.
Most of the positions to be solved have been selected from actual games of the strongest grandmasters of the present and the great masters of the past. For beginner chess players, their parents and coaches.