The most feared chess piece on the board is the queen, especially if you use it early in the game. There are openings that utilize the queen very early in the game. The queen is so powerful that most of the time when chess players promote their pawn, they almost always promote pawns to queen.
One of the reasons that the queen is powerful is because of its movement. The queen can move as many spaces or squares as she wants as long as it is legal to do so! Another amazing ability of the queen is that it can move like rook and bishop! In this article you are going to learn more about this powerful chess piece and its moves!
Also read: Why is the queen powerful in chess?
How can queen move like a rook in chess?
Yes, the queen can move like a rook, and it's not that difficult to learn. The queen can move any number of spaces horizontally and vertically, just like the rook (see image below). The queen can capture a piece horizontally or vertically, as shown below.
How does a queen move like a bishop in chess?
The queen can move like a bishop, and it's easy to learn, you need to move the queen diagonally just like the bishop (see image below). The queen can move any number of spaces diagonally, and can capture pieces, as shown below. The queen can easily occupy light diagonal squares or dark diagonal squares, unlike the bishops, which will have a specific color square to move.
Queen position on the chess board
The chess board game will have two queens in the beginning, one light color and one dark color. The position of queens on the chess board initially is d1 square for light colored queen and d8 square for dark colored queen (see image below).
You will notice sometimes that a chess board will have additional queen chess pieces for each light and dark colors. This means you can have more than one queen during a game of chess – this is called queening or pawn promotion.
Also read: Can you have more than one queen in chess?
Important tips for queen chess setup
Sometimes beginners make mistakes in setting up the board, especially the queen and also the king. It's important to know how to set up your queen to avoid repeating a game or even losing a game.
1. The queen sits next to the king. You will always find the queen positioned next to your king on the chess board. If you are white, the queen sits on the left side of the king, and if you are black, then your queen sits on the right side of the king (see image below).
2. The queen follows its color. If you are not 100% sure of your queen's position even if you followed the first tip, you can use another verification technique by checking the queen's color. If your queen is white, its square should be light, and if your queen is black, its square should be dark (see image below).
3. The queen's square d. The next step you can use to verify the queen's chess setup is to just remember that the queen's square is always the “d” square (see image below). I guess that's the easiest way to avoid any setup mistake when playing chess.
Chess board setup tips are very important to learn to avoid repeating a game with positional mistakes before the game even starts.
How many spaces can a queen move in chess?
The maximum number of spaces the queen can move is 7 in 3 different directions – 7 diagonal spaces, 7 horizontal spaces and 7 vertical spaces. In an actual game of chess, it will depend on if the spaces are occupied or not, even if the queen can move a maximum of 7 spaces.
How to play chess queen's gambit?
To play the queen's gambit in chess, you have to play as white and start with pawn to d4 move. After that, your opponent should move a pawn to d5, where both your pawns are in the center of the board (see image below). Your second move will be the queen's gambit, which is pawn to c4!
You can check this notable queen's gambit game played by Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer below;
The term gambit means sacrificing a pawn to gain a certain advantage in the game.
The main advantage of playing the queen's gambit is to develop your pieces a lot faster compared to the popular pawn to e4 move. I really like playing queen's gambit when I was young because I like to play aggressive.
You should at least learn some popular chess openings to improve your game and knowledge.
How to play chess without queen?
I have experienced playing without a queen in chess, and it feels horrible losing your queen in a game. It does make you feel helpless knowing you just lost your most powerful piece on the board and winning without a queen is not that easy.
You have to use all the tactics and strategies you learned to be able to win without your queen. The most obvious strategy you need to do is to get your queen back by promoting one of your pawns to the queen.
If you can't get your pawn to turn into a queen, then you just have to capture your opponent's queen or checkmate the king even without your queen in the game.
You may also want to learn about this unbeatable chess strategy that I wrote here.
How to play chess against aggressive queen?
If your opponent likes to move its queen aggressively or uses its queen to attack aggressively in the opening of the game, you just have to take advantage of it by counter attacking the queen. In that way, your opponent will lose its tempo while you develop your pieces a lot faster.
Can the queen move like the knight?
No, the queen cannot move in an L-shape or jump over other chess pieces just like the knight. The queen can't move like the knight because the queen already has the ability of the rook and bishop, giving the queen the knight's movement will completely dominate all other pieces on the board.
You can also learn more about chess moves and pictures of each pieces here.
Can a queen capture a queen in chess?
Yes, the queen can capture a queen in chess. For example, a light queen capturing a dark queen (see image below) by means of xray move, or a dark queen capturing the light queen (see image below) by pinning.
I also shared 18 chess tactics that you may also like to read here.
Wrapping Up
Just to give you a quick overview, the queen is so powerful that most chess players promote their pawns to queen. The queen can move as many spaces or squares as she wants as long as it is legal to do so. The queen can move like a rook and bishop, and it's easy to learn.
The queen can occupy light diagonal squares or dark diagonal squares, unlike the bishops, which will have a specific color square to move.
The queen cannot move like a knight, but that does not stop the queen from being the most powerful chess piece on the board.
Hope you were able to learn something new in this article please don't forget to check out our favorite chess resources.
