The
queen is the most powerful
pieceChess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A standard chess match consists of each player having the following equipment:* 1 king* 1 queen* 2 rooks* 2 bishops* 2 knights* 8 pawns...
in the game of
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of their first rank next to their
kingIn chess, the King is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that he would not be able to avoid capture . If a player's king is threatened with capture, he is said to be in check, and the player must move so as to remove the threat of capture...
. The white queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square, thus the
mnemonicA mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be...
"queen gets her color" or "queen on color". In
algebraic notationAlgebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers. In English speaking countries, it replaced the parallel system of descriptive chess notation, which became common in the...
, the white queen starts on the
d1 square and the black queen starts on the
d8 square.
In the game
shatranjShatranj is an old form of chess, which came from India to Persia and has been popular in Persia and the Middle East for almost 1000 years. Modern chess has gradually developed from this game.-Etymology and origins:...
, an ancestor of chess, the queen was a fairly weak piece called a
fers or
vizierA vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Persian Empire's monarchs such as Shah and Shahenshah. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Muslim's caliph, or sultan...
, only able to move or capture one square in a
diagonalA diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
direction similar to a pawn.
The
queen is the most powerful
pieceChess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A standard chess match consists of each player having the following equipment:* 1 king* 1 queen* 2 rooks* 2 bishops* 2 knights* 8 pawns...
in the game of
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of their first rank next to their
kingIn chess, the King is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that he would not be able to avoid capture . If a player's king is threatened with capture, he is said to be in check, and the player must move so as to remove the threat of capture...
. The white queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square, thus the
mnemonicA mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be...
"queen gets her color" or "queen on color". In
algebraic notationAlgebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers. In English speaking countries, it replaced the parallel system of descriptive chess notation, which became common in the...
, the white queen starts on the
d1 square and the black queen starts on the
d8 square.
In the game
shatranjShatranj is an old form of chess, which came from India to Persia and has been popular in Persia and the Middle East for almost 1000 years. Modern chess has gradually developed from this game.-Etymology and origins:...
, an ancestor of chess, the queen was a fairly weak piece called a
fers or
vizierA vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Persian Empire's monarchs such as Shah and Shahenshah. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Muslim's caliph, or sultan...
, only able to move or capture one square in a
diagonalA diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
direction similar to a pawn. The modern queen's move arose in 15th century Europe.
The piece is archaically known as the
minister. In
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
it is known as the
HetmanHetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Rzeczpospolita....
– the name of a major historical military-political office. In
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
it keeps its Persian name of
ferz (
koroleva or Queen is colloquial and is never used by professional chess players).
Movement
The queen can be moved any number of unoccupied squares in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, thus combining the moves of the
rookA rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes , and non-players still often call it a "castle". Using the rook in a specialized double-movement with the king is still refered to as castling...
and
bishopA bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
. The queen captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.
Although both players start with one queen each, a player can promote a
pawnThe pawn is the most numerous and the weakest piece in the game of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the second rank from the view of the player...
to any of several types of pieces including a queen when the pawn is moved to the player's furthest rank, which is the opponents first rank. Such a queen created by promotion can be an additional queen or, if the player's queen has been captured, a replacement queen. Such pawn promotion to a queen can be colloquially called
queening, which is by far the most common type of piece a pawn is promoted to because of the power of a queen.
Piece value
Ordinarily the queen is slightly more powerful than a rook and a bishop together, while slightly less powerful than two rooks. It is almost always disadvantageous to exchange the queen for a piece other than the enemy's queen. (see chess piece relative value)
The reason the queen is more powerful than a rook and bishop, even though they control the same number of squares is twofold. First, the queen is a more mobile unit than the rook and bishop, as the entire power of the queen can be transferred to another location in one move while transferring the entire firepower of a rook and bishop requires two moves. Second, the queen is not hampered by the bishop's inability to control squares of the opposite color to the square on which it stands on. A factor in favor of the rook and bishop is that they can attack (or defend) a square twice, while a queen can only do so once, but experience has shown that this factor is usually less significant than the points which favor the queen.
The queen is at her most powerful when the board is open, when the enemy king is not well-defended, or when there are
loose (i.e. undefended) pieces in the enemy camp. Because of her long range and ability to move in more than one direction, the queen is well-equipped to execute
forksIn chess, a fork is a tactic that uses one piece to attack two or more of the opponent's pieces at the same time, hoping to achieve material gain because the opponent can only counter one of the two threats. The piece moving to make the multiple attack on the opponent's pieces is the forking piece...
. Compared to other long range pieces (i.e. rooks and bishops) the queen is less restricted and more powerful also in closed positions.
Strategy
Beginners often develop the queen as soon as possible, in the hopes of plundering the enemy position and possibly even delivering an early
checkmateCheckmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
such as
Scholar's mateIn chess, scholar's mate is the checkmate which occurs after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Qxf7#. The moves may be played in a different order or with slight variations, but the basic idea – the queen and bishop combining in an attack on f7 is the same...
. This strategy is disadvantageous against experienced players. With no other pieces developed, an attack by the queen alone can be easily repelled. Moreover, because the queen is too valuable to exchange for a lesser piece, the defender can often gain time and space by threatening an exposed queen and forcing her to retreat. Nonetheless, the
Scandinavian DefenseThe Scandinavian Defense or Center Counter Defense, is a chess opening characterized by the movesThe Center Counter Defense is one of the oldest recorded openings, first recorded as being played between Francesco di Castellvi and Narciso Vinyoles in Valencia in 1475, and being mentioned by Lucena...
, which in the main line features queen moves by Black on the second and third moves, is considered sound and has been played at world championship level. Even the
Parham AttackThe Parham Attack, also known as the Wayward Queen Attack, Danvers Attack, or the Patzer Opening, is an irregular chess opening beginning withIt is named after the American chess master Bernard Parham, the first master-level player known to have advocated it...
(1.e4 e5 2.Qh5!?), which is widely considered a
chess openingIn chess the word "opening" has two common meanings: a stage of a game and a sequence of moves; both of which are discussed in this article. Chess players are so familiar with these two meanings that many books and articles never state the distinction and may switch without notice from one meaning...
suitable only for beginners, has occasionally been played by the strong
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
grandmaster
Hikaru NakamuraHikaru Nakamura, is an American chess Grandmaster and the current United States Chess Champion....
.
An exchange of queens often marks the beginning of the endgame, although there is such a thing as a queen endgame. Due to the multiplicity of queen moves available, and the possibility of
perpetual checkIn the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. Such a situation typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate, while any other move gives the opponent a chance to win. Perpetual check is no...
, queen endgames are notoriously difficult to win. Endgames often hinge on attempts to
promotePromotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
a pawn to a queen.
History
The queen was originally the
fers (counsellor or prime minister) and had a quite different movement. In Persia it was called the
ferzin and later the
firz. Initially it could move only one square diagonally. About 1300 its move was enhanced to allow it to jump two squares diagonally, which was the same move as the
bishopA bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
at the time. For a while it was also allowed to jump like a
knightThe knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head, leading some to refer to it informally as a "horse"....
once in the game, somewhat analogous to
castlingCastling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess that involves more than one piece of the same player. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook, then moving the rook onto the...
for the
kingIn chess, the King is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that he would not be able to avoid capture . If a player's king is threatened with capture, he is said to be in check, and the player must move so as to remove the threat of capture...
. This rule was used in Turkey and Russia until the 18th Century. During the 15th Century the move took its modern form as a combination of the move of the
rookA rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes , and non-players still often call it a "castle". Using the rook in a specialized double-movement with the king is still refered to as castling...
and the current move of the bishop .
See also
- Chess piece
Chess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A standard chess match consists of each player having the following equipment:* 1 king* 1 queen* 2 rooks* 2 bishops* 2 knights* 8 pawns...
- Eight queens puzzle
The eight queens puzzle is the problem of putting eight chess queens on an 8×8 chessboard such that none of them are able to capture any other using the standard chess queen's moves. The queens must be placed in such a way that no two queens would be able to attack each other. Thus, a solution...
- Staunton chess set
The Staunton chess set is composed of a particular type of chess pieces used to play the game of chess. According to the rules of chess, this style is to be used for competitions. Nathaniel Cook is credited with the design, and they are named after Howard Staunton. The first 500 sets were hand...
- Chess piece relative value
- Queen versus pawn endgame
- promotion (chess)
Promotion is a chess term describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
External links