Making Too Many Queen Moves in the Opening

Repeated moves with the same piece in the opening are a form of neglected development. While the same piece is moving again and again, the other pieces remain undeveloped. Always a serious fault, it becomes even more serious when the Queen is the piece which is being moved repeatedly. There are a number of reasons for this.

The Queen is by far the strongest piece on the board. It is the heart and soul of a well-managed attack which is based on systematic, completed development. To move this powerful piece aimlessly and repeatedly dissipates the attacking power of your position. To move the Queen very early while concentrating on a definite but minor goal, is still bad policy; often much more important features are neglected during these short-sighted maneuvers.

Still another drawback to early Queen moves is that they readily expose the Queen to attack by enemy pieces. So we have here the painful paradox that while one player ignores his development with repeated Queen moves, his opponent develops one piece after another with gain of time by simultaneously attacking the Queen!

Your best course, then, is to follow the advice given on page 5: concentrate on playing out the minor pieces at the beginning of the game; make sure of castling into safety; and develop the Queen only after the opening development has begun to take shape.

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Exposing Your King to Attack

The King is unlike any other piece. In every game of chess, the object,direct or potential, is to checkmate your opponent's King.

No matter how the game proceeds, no matter what your plans may be, you must guard
your King and look for opportunities to menace your opponent's King.

Since the King's safety controls the fate of the game, you take unnecessary risks whenever you expose your King to attack. One of the most common ways to endanger the King is to leave him on his original square in the middle of the back rank. The other chess pieces are most active in the center and exert their greatest power in that area.

Consequently, the King is most vulnerable at his original square. Leaving the King in the center is particularly dangerous in "open" positions - those in which there are open files. Such open lines are highways along which the Queen and Rooks can operate to menace the hostile King. (In "closed" position - those in which the Pawn position is locked - a King may be fairly safe in the center.)

Leaving the King in the center sometimes leads to ferocious "King-hunts." In the course of such a savage drive on a hostile King, he may be hounded all the way from his original square to the other side of the board. The King-hunt is the extreme example of the helplessness of a King stranded in the center and exposed to the fury of the hostile pieces.

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