I seem to have an inexplicable and persistent problem playing against people who open with e4 or… e5 and come out swinging with their queen. I’m guessing I win the games about 60% of the time but never without having to overcome a material deficit or late development. generally these opponents have lower server ratings which explains how I win the majority of these games but I feel that losing 40% of the time to what is regarded as a weak tactic is unacceptable. is there any general advice some of you stronger players can offer on coping with this tactic?
I would suggest that you take 3-4 of these games and enter them in a chess program like Fritz. Let him suggest the best moves. You should find a pattern that you should follow in these games.
It’s worth sacrificing a pawn or two for activity:
- e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qf3 f5! (recommended by some GM in New in Chess when Nakamura was experimenting with 2.Qh5) 5. exf5? (5.Ne2 is better) 5…Nd4! 6. Qe4 d6 7. fxg6 Nf6 (I won many games on ICC with 7…Bf5, but Houdini prefers this) 8. Bf7+ Ke7 9. Qh4 Nxc2+ 10. Kd1 Nxa1 11. Nc3 hxg6 12. Qxh8 Kxf7
A student taught me this some years ago:
- e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qf3 Nf6 5. Qb3? Nd4! 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Qc4 b5
And I used to play this against the rabbi in my hometown:
- e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nf6!? 3.Qxe5 Be7 (I don’t recommend, but it’s probably equal.)
Most generally: Why is leading with your Queen a generally bad idea in the first place? The answer is: It becomes a target for lesser pieces to swing at. With each swing the Queen has to dance while the opponent gains tempos in development. Consider the following construction, for example:
[Event “Early Queen”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2012.01.01”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Queenmover,Mad”]
[Black “Erickson,Darren”]
[Result “*”]
[PlyCount “10”]
- e4 e5 2. Qh5 {There goes Queenie, looking for an early mate!} Nc6 {The
immediate …Nf6 wasn’t good because of Qxe5+. Gotta protect the e pawn first.
} 3. Bc4 g6 {Now we make the Queen dance.} 4. Qg4 {(Qd1 actually recommended
here, but our player wants to try keeping the Queen in action.)} d6 5. Qd1 {
(Now I follow Fritz’ advice and back the Queen to d1.)} Nf6 {So, now we have
three pawns and two Knights developed, compared to one pawn and one Bishop.
With no material lost, Fritz sugests the position is half a pawn in Black’s
favor. Anything can still happen, but Black is off to a great start.} *
Simple moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qg4 d6 5. Qd1 Nf6
That said, as you’ve found out, there are times and places where early Queen moves can have impact later on. I’m not sure how good/classic this game is, but a very quick search found me:
[Event “London m2”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1842.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Staunton, Howard”]
[Black “Cochrane, John”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C23”]
[PlyCount “55”]
[EventDate “1842.??.??”]
- e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Qh5 Qe7 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. d3 d6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. O-O Bxc3 8.
bxc3 Nf6 9. Qh4 Bg4 10. Ng5 Bh5 11. f4 h6 12. Nh3 O-O-O 13. Rb1 exf4 14. Qxf4
Qe5 15. Be3 Qxf4 16. Nxf4 Bg6 17. Nd5 Nxd5 18. Bxd5 Rhf8 19. Bxc6 bxc6 20. Bxa7
Kd7 21. Rb7 Ra8 22. a4 c5 23. a5 Kc6 24. Rfb1 c4 25. a6 cxd3 26. cxd3 f5 27.
Bb8 Rc8 28. a7 1-0
or likewise consider:
[Event “Lloyds Bank op”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1994.??.??”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Shabalov, Alexander”]
[Black “Parker, Jonathan”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C27”]
[WhiteElo “2600”]
[BlackElo “2400”]
[PlyCount “65”]
[EventDate “1994.08.??”]
- e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 g6 7. Qf3 f5 8.
Qd5 Qe7 9. Nxc7+ Kd8 10. Nxa8 b6 11. d3 Bb7 12. h4 h6 13. Nxb6 axb6 14. Qf3 Bg7 - Qh3 e4 16. Ne2 exd3 17. cxd3 Re8 18. Bd1 f4 19. Bxf4 Nf5 20. O-O Nxh4 21.
Nc3 Nd4 22. Ne4 Bxe4 23. dxe4 g5 24. Bg3 Qxe4 25. Rc1 Re6 26. Bg4 Nhf5 27. Bc7+
Ke7 28. Bxb6 h5 29. Bxh5 Qf4 30. Qa3+ Nd6 31. Rce1 Be5 32. g3 Qd2 33. Qa8 1-0
But, notice that in both games (the second more than the first) that rolling the Queen out didn’t guarantee a win for White. And the situation can also backfire as in my constructed example:
[Event “6th YM”]
[Site “Lausanne SUI”]
[Date “2005.09.19”]
[Round “3.2”]
[White “Nakamura, H.”]
[Black “Volokitin, And”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B20”]
[WhiteElo “2660”]
[BlackElo “2671”]
[PlyCount “46”]
[EventDate “2005.09.14”]
[EventType “k.o.”]
[EventRounds “3”]
- e4 c5 2. Qh5 Nf6 3. Qh4 Nc6 4. Be2 e5 5. d3 Be7 6. Qg3 d5 7. Nd2 O-O 8. c3
b5 9. Nh3 d4 10. c4 Ne8 11. cxb5 Bh4 12. Qf3 Nb4 13. Bd1 f5 14. a3 Nd6 15. axb4
fxe4 16. Qh5 Bxh3 17. g3 Qf6 18. Bb3+ Kh8 19. f3 exf3 20. Kf2 Bg5 21. Nxf3 g6 - Bxg5 Qf5 23. Qxh3 Qxf3+ 0-1
White’ Queen moves six times in 23 moves, most of them just having to dance out of the way of oncoming threats. (Apologies, Mr. Nakamura, for pulling this one! Especially when I don’t know if it was Blitz, or what…)
Anyway, the overly-exampled story short, I think it holds that an early Queen out leads to her being a premature target which needs to be protected.
thank you all for your thorough responses! I’ve never seen a forum where people provide such complete and researched information.
Here’s a mini by Tal.
I read an article about the game. The author used the game not only to show why moving the queen early is a bad idea, but to also question the wisdom of anybody to move a queen several times in the opening against augably the world’s greatest chess tactician.
If you notice in the game, Tal just keeps making solid moves in development. At least until he went for the kill.
[Event “Amsterdam Interzonal”]
[Site “Amsterdam”]
[Date “1964.??.??”]
[Round “23”]
[White “Tal, Mihail”]
[Black “Tringov, Georgi P”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B06”]
[PlyCount “33”]
[EventDate “1964.05.20”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “23”]
[EventCountry “NED”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2010.11.18”]
- e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Nf3 c6 5. Bg5 Qb6 6. Qd2 Qxb2 7. Rb1 Qa3 8. Bc4
Qa5 9. O-O e6 10. Rfe1 a6 11. Bf4 e5 12. dxe5 dxe5 13. Qd6 Qxc3 14. Red1 Nd7 - Bxf7+ Kxf7 16. Ng5+ Ke8 17. Qe6+ 1-0