In many of my games, I'm having problems with developing my queen. I'm aware of basic principles such as not moving the queen too early, or developing it after the minor pieces and so on. Yet, I wonder what else comes after these principles. In general, I'm looking for some practical advice on developing and using my queen better. I'm ~1900 in rapid and ~1700 in blitz on lichess if that matters.
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4It's hard to give a general answer to questions as braod as that. You'll need to show us some examples of games where you messed up your queen positioning for us to be able to provide a meaningful answer– DavidSep 22, 2021 at 23:09
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This is an interesting question to me because I have never thought of "developing" my queen. Other pieces I intentionally develop. I may consider development complete without moving my queen.– Michael WestSep 24, 2021 at 12:18
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Seirawan's book Winning Chess Strategies has a very nice chapter called "Where the Pieces Go" or something similar. Might be good to go through the chapter and understand not just the Queen-focused content, but the other pieces as well since the Queen must collaborate to be truly effective.– SecretAgentManSep 24, 2021 at 14:23
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One thumb-rule to consider is to ask if the "queen move" you are considering is doing several good things for you and your position. Given that she has so much square control and mobility, do not waste a queen move if it barely does one useful thing for you.– shivskySep 24, 2021 at 17:20
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1 Answer
Because the Queen is so versatile, it is hard to give general rules, but you might try asking the question, which of my other pieces do I want her to cooperate with? She might combine with one of your Bishops to attack squares of that color, or with Rook(s) to control an open file. Queen and Knight can be deadly together because neither is restricted to one color. Queens are great at shepherding passed Pawns. Paradoxically, you might ask whether there is a task to be done that none of the others can achieve? In all cases, the key is to think about her in relation to your other pieces.
And take a look at Soltis' Reassessing the Chess Pieces
answered Sep 22, 2021 at 22:31
