THE QUEEN

As the most powerful of the pieces and therefore the most valuable, the
queen has the difficult combination of being the ideal attacker, while also
being vulnerable to attack by the enemy. New players are often divided into
two camps on how to use the queen; some novices are so enamoured by
the queen's power and mobility, that they use their queen almost to the
exclusion of the other pieces, while others are so afraid of losing the queen
that they keep her locked away safe from harm and miss out on the
opportunity of using their most powerful piece. Of course, the ideal
approach is somewhere in between.

The strongest attacking piece

The queen is best suited to a role in attacking the enemy. Her ability to
strike out along ranks, files and diagonals gives her an unparalleled ability
to create multiple threats at once and overload enemy defences
singlehanded. Here is an example of the queen's awesome attacking
power:

White's queen doesn't look very dangerous on e1, but her long-range
mobility means she can quickly storm into action.1. Qe4Attacking the rook.
If black saves the rook, the white queen's real intentions are
revealed:1... Rb8 2. Qh7+ Kf8 3. Qh8+ Ke7 4. Qd8#Checkmate. By using
the threat against the rook to gain time, the white queen has rampaged
through the black fortress and caught the black king just as he was
escaping out the back door.
The presence of the queen makes any attack much more dangerous, and
while the enemy queen is still on the board, the king must huddle in fear
behind his defensive pawns. Because of this, one way to fend off an attack
by the opponent is to try and exchange queens

White has a strong attack, with mate threatened on h7, but black can avoid
immediate defeat by forcing a trade of
queens.1... Qg5+ 2. Kb1 Qxg6 3. Bxg6Without the queen, white's attack
loses much of its strength, and black's king breathes a sigh of relief. In this
position, black can keep on fighting.
A poor defender
Because the queen is so valuable, she does not make a good defensive
piece. Because of the queen's value, simply being protected by another
piece is often not enough - when attacked by an enemy piece of lesser
value (and aside from the enemy queen they are all of lesser value) she is
usually compelled to move and abandon whatever defensive duties she
was performing.

The black queen defends the knight on f4, but white can use less valuable
pieces to chase her around until she can no longer defend the
knight:1. Rad1 Qe5 2. Rfe1 Qg5 3. Ne4 Qe5The black queen tries to
maintain defence of the knight, but white can keep on harassing
her.4. Nd2 Qg5 4... Qd6 5. Nc4 and black can't defend the knight anymore.
5. h4 Qxh4 6. g3Now the knight will be
lost.6... Nh3+ 7. Kg2 Ng5 8. gxh4 Nxf3 9. Nxf3Ultimately, black has lost a
knight for a pawn, because the queen was an inadequate defender. If it had
been a black bishop instead of a queen on d6, black could simply have
moved the knight to safety.
Don't fear the queen
Many players are afraid of their opponent's queen, and try to exchange
queens at the earliest opportunity. This really isn't necessary (unless you
love endgames, at least), as the queen is often vulnerable to attack if
brought out too soon. An attack on the queen is almost like a check,
because the opponent will almost always have to save their queen. You
can often use an attack on an exposed queen to gain time to move your
piece to a better square. Here is an example:

If the black knight could get to d3, it would attack both white rooks, and win
a rook for a knight. However, if it tries to get there by ...Nb4, white can
defend with Re2. Instead, black can use an attack on the white queen to
gain time for the manoeuvre:1... Ne5 2. Qg3 Nd3 The extra time gained
while white had to save the queen allows the knight to reach its destination
before white can defend against it.