The queen: the most powerful piece on the board

The queen is the piece most children fall in love with first. She can zoom right across the board in a single move, and she is the strongest piece in the whole game. That power is exciting, but it also brings a lesson every young player has to learn: the more valuable a piece is, the more carefully you need to look after it.

How the queen moves

The easiest way to explain the queen is to say she moves like a rook and a bishop put together. She can travel any number of squares in a straight line: forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally. She can't turn a corner during her move, and she can't jump over other pieces. If something is in her way, she has to stop. She captures the same way she moves, by landing on an opponent's piece and taking its place.

From a square in the middle of an empty board, the queen can reach 27 different squares in one move.

Quick memory trick: if a rook could go there, or a bishop could go there, the queen can go there too.

Where the queen starts

Each player has one queen. She starts on the back row, right next to the king, on the square that matches her own colour. The white queen starts on a light square and the black queen starts on a dark square. Children often remember this as "the queen gets her own colour".

Why she's worth so much

Because she can do the job of two pieces at once, the queen is usually counted as being worth 9 points, more than any other piece. Losing her early in a game makes winning much harder. That's why one of the kindest habits you can teach is to check whether the queen is safe before every move.

Common beginner mistakes

• Bringing her out too early. It's tempting to send the queen out on the second move to hunt for pieces. But the opponent can then chase her around with smaller pieces, getting their own pieces into play while your child keeps running away.
• Forgetting she can be captured. The queen is strong, but any piece can take her, even a little pawn. A pawn swapped for a queen is a very bad trade.
• Only looking straight ahead. Children often forget the queen's diagonal moves, both when using their own queen and when spotting the opponent's.

A bonus fact children love

When a pawn reaches the far side of the board, it is promoted and can become a new piece. Most players choose a queen. That means a player can have two queens, or even more, at the same time.

Practising with ChessMons

In the How to Play lessons, children can hear how the queen moves with voice-over and then move her freely around the board to try every direction. If your child sends their queen somewhere risky, Professor Tock, our tortoise coach, will warn them with "Who's watching?": the square turns red and the attacking pieces get eyes, so your child can see exactly who is ready to pounce.

Try this at home: put just a queen and a few pawns on a real board. Take turns asking "Which pawns can the queen capture right now?" It builds the habit of checking every line, which is exactly what keeps a queen safe in real games.