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The queen (♕♛) is the most powerful piece in the game of
chess. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of their first
rank next to their king. Beginners often accidentally interchange the
placement of the queen and king, thus the mnemonic "queen on her color". The white
queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square. In algebraic notation, the white queen starts on d1 and the black queen on d8.
The queen can be moved in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, any number of unoccupied squares as shown
to the left, thus combining the moves of the rook and bishop. As with most pieces, the queen captures by occupying the square on
which an enemy piece sits.
Ordinarily the queen is slightly more powerful than a rook and a bishop, while slightly less powerful than two rooks. Because
the queen is more valuable than any other piece, it is almost always disadvantageous to exchange the queen for a piece other than
the enemy's 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 forks, but such forks
are only useful when both the forked pieces are undefended, or one is undefended and the other is the enemy king.
Beginners often develop the queen as soon as possible, in the hopes of plundering the enemy position and possibly even
delivering an early checkmate. While effective against other beginners, 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.
An exchange of queens often marks the beginning of the endgame. After the queens
and a few other pieces have been exchanged, the kings are able to participate more actively in events, and the focus of the game
shifts to a struggle to promote a pawn, usually to a new queen.
However, it is not necessary to lose one's queen before gaining a new one by promotion. It is thus theoretically possible, though
improbable, for a player to have nine queens at one time.
See also
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