Chess Rules

Lesson 3: The Queen: Star of the Chessboard!

 

The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board! It is represented as a crown with several peaks (as opposed to the King's crown which is topped by a cross). The physical piece can be distinguished by its serrated top (the Bart Simpson look).

Each player receives one Queen. The Queen is abbreviated Q. It has an approximate relative value of 9 Pawns.

Like the King, she can move to any of the 8 adjacent squares, forming the same "square of influence" as the King. But the square cannot contain her majesty. Unlike the King, the Queen doesn't stop at the square, but can keep going...

In each direction, the full length of the board! With a maximum of 27 squares of influence, she looks like a giant eight-pointed star.

So think of the Queen as wearing a crown so bright that it reflects light in the pattern of a star.

The Queen starts her life on the d file, which is fittingly enough, right next to the King. If you don't have a chess board with the letters and numbers on it, a good way to remember where the Queen goes is: "the Queen starts out on her own color". So, the White queen is on the light square, and the Black Queen is on the dark square.

It is often useful to think of the chessboard as divided vertically down the middle between the Queenside (the a-d files) and the Kingside (the e-h files).

 

Now that we know how the King and the Queen move, we're ready to talk about checkmate. The King is in "check" when he is threatened with capture. The King is checkmated when there is no way to prevent the King's capture. At that point the game is over; the King is never actually removed from the board.

In this position, it's White's turn to move. Which squares can White move his King to? (e4, e5, e6, f4, f6) Where can he move the Queen? (all along the 8th rank, the g-file, the a2-g8 diagonal, and h7).

Now that we know what's possible, which move would be the best for White here? (1. Qh7# or 1. Qh8#) (Remember the White King's square of influence which prevents the Black King's escape along the g file.)

What if it were Black's turn? Where can Black move his King? (h4, h6) His Queen? (1st rank, g-file, g1-a7 diagonal, h2) Which is the best move? (1...Qxg8)

Some Notes on Notation:

Note that in writing down chess moves, we normally just give the move number (1. ) followed by the abbreviation of the piece being moved (Q) followed by the name of the square the piece is moving to (h7). If a capture is involved we write an (x) before the name of the square (Qxg8). We use an ellipses (...) when we are just giving the Black move without the White move (otherwise Black's move comes after White's move, with a comma separating them as in "1. Nc3, Nf6"). We use the pound sign (#) or double plus (++) to indicate checkmate, and a single plus (+) to indicate check.

 

Stalemate:

We've seen Check and Checkmate, now we want to look at something called Stalemate. Stalemate occurs when the King is not in check, but cannot move without being placed in Check.

Here, if it were Black's turn to move, the game would be over by Stalemate. Remember that it is illegal to make a move which would put your own King in check. Any move Black would make here would put the King in check, so Black cannot move, but since he's not currently in check, the result is a Stalemate. A Stalemate is a draw, neither side wins or loses. In a tournament, each player is awarded half a point.

If it were White's turn to move, what would he move, and what would the result be? (1. Qh6# or 1. Qh5# or 1. Qg7# or 1. Qg8#, but not 1.Qe6? or 1. Qh7??)

Note that we use ? To indicate a bad move, and ?? To indicate a blunder. A really good move is indicated by one or two exclamation points!

 

Our next lesson: The (ex) Bishop!




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