In antichess, queen races are when both players have their queens on opposite sides of the board, continually capturing each other's pieces.
In my experience playing antichess, queen races are very hard to calculate and it usually feels like I'm taking random pieces until there are less pieces on the board, after which I can start calculating.
They are also very common and very easy to get into in antichess; once both queens are active, it is hard to stop a queen race from happening.
Take the following position from a recent game I had:
[FEN "r1b3nr/pppQ2pp/n3p3/8/8/4P3/P1PN1P1P/R1B1K1q1 w - - 0 9"]
It is white to play, and there is mate in 13 for white, according the fairy stockfish. What move would you play here?
The thing is, there are 4 captures available for the white queen and only one of them continues to mating sequence. The answer is actually Qxg7, with white not allowing black the chance to end the queen race. Now if white played Qxc7, for example, black could potentially play Nxc7, ending the queen race, or play Qxe1, continuing the queen race.
Now, at least to me, it is very unclear that white is winning from this position. I was playing as black in this game and did not feel that I was losing at this point; in fact, I won this game at the end.
So what I want to ask is:
What are some general principles that should be followed in queen races? How would I gain a better understanding and intuition as to what to play in these scenarios? How do I decide whether to stop a queen race when given the chance, or to continue the queen race?
