The Queen and its importance in chess
Alexander Kotov stated a very basic and essential fact of chess that anyone who has played the game can figure out.
He said, “In choosing an opening plan players think most of all of harmonious development for the pieces, but sometimes leave the development of the queen out of their considerations. Yet the Queen is the most valuable and important piece and the whole outcome
can depend upon how successfully she plays her role.”
Most beginners tend to focus on this piece, making use of the queen both as an attacking and defensive weapon. However, before one centralises the game around the queen, they should know how best to use it. In this article, we are going to discuss with you
what makes the queen such a force to be reckoned with.
Needless to say, the queen is the most powerful piece in chess. It has gotten this status because of its movement capabilities and the significance it holds for a chess game. The queen is placed on the first rank of the chess board, adjacent to the king.
If the queen is white its starting square will be the same. Likewise, a black queen will be placed on a black square. This fact has made popular the mnemonic, ‘the queen gets her colour’.
The movement of the queen is a combination of the rook and bishop’s moves. Therefore, not only can it move in straight lines to the north, east, west and south, the queen can also move in diagonals. As with the rook and bishop, the queen’s movement is not
restricted in the forward direction; it possesses the ability to move backwards too.
That makes it more of an overwhelming force to deal with. The queen can travel to any square in its path as long as there is no obstacle in the way. When the queen has to make a capture, it is done in the same fashion as that of its movement.
There is a special provision granted to the players in connection with the queen. As each player has only one queen to begin with and it can be crucial to lose it at almost any point in the game, the players are given a chance to get their queens back. This
is done through promotion of a pawn.
The pawn is promoted when it breaches far into the enemy defences and reaches the eighth rank, which is the last one. Once in this position, the player has the option to promote the pawn into a queen. Promotion can also be done in situations where the original
queen is already present and the pawn has reached the eighth rank.
According to the standard rankings, the queen is ranked higher than all the other pieces except the king of course. In most cases, it also has a higher value than most pair combinations of other pieces. For instance, the queen is more valuable than two bishops
or a combination of a rook and a bishop. However, in comparison with two rooks, the queen’s value decreases somewhat.
The queen can best be utilised in open games as such a position allows the best use of its abilities. In closed games, the mobility is restricted and the queen is more vulnerable to attack. Open games in comparison, allow the queen to make a maximum number
of captures, especially by executing forks. A fork is an attacking position in which a single piece is threatening to capture multiple enemy pieces at the same time.
Usually, the queens are not present in the endgame as they are often exchanged at the end of the middle game. However, if they do reach the endgame, checkmating is made a lot easier.
This was an orientation session to equip you with the basic know how of the most important chess piece. Now go ahead and play some chess so that you can put your lesson to practice.
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