How the Queen Moves in Chess
In the fifth stage, your child learns how the queen moves, the strongest piece on the board: how it moves and captures, what gets in its way, and how to attack with the queen without losing it. The stage is made up of short videos, explanations and 100 exercises on an interactive board.
What’s in this stage
- How the queen moves in chess — 2 exercises
- Moving the queen from square to square — 8 exercises
- Can a queen jump over pieces — 12 exercises
- How the queen captures — 8 exercises
- How to attack a rook safely with the queen — 14 exercises
- How to attack a bishop safely with the queen — 14 exercises
- How the queen attacks pieces — 20 exercises
- Squares attacked by two pieces at once — 8 exercises
- Test yourself: exercises on everything you’ve learned — 14 exercises
Total: 100 exercises
How the queen moves in chess
The queen is the strongest piece, worth 9 pawns. It moves both like a rook, along files and ranks, and like a bishop, along diagonals, any number of empty squares, but in one direction per move. Unlike a bishop, the queen can switch between light and dark squares.
Moving the queen from square to square
The players take turns: White, Black, then White again. From d4 on an empty board, the queen can move to 27 squares: 14 along the file and rank, and 13 along the diagonals.
Can a queen jump over pieces
No. Like the rook and the bishop, the queen travels along empty squares up to the first obstacle and can’t jump over any pieces, its own or the opponent’s.
How the queen captures
The queen captures the same way it moves: it takes the opponent’s piece or pawn that stands first on its line. If several pieces can be captured, it’s usually best to take the most valuable one, for example the opponent’s queen.
How to attack a rook safely with the queen
This is the main new topic of the stage. The square from which the queen attacks a piece must be safe: if an opponent’s piece attacks that square, the queen will simply be captured. When attacking a rook, check whether the rook itself or another piece attacks the square the queen is moving to. Otherwise you give away 9 pawns’ worth for 5.
How to attack a bishop safely with the queen
The same rule applies to the bishop: first find every square from which the queen attacks it, then cross out the ones attacked by the bishop and the opponent’s other pieces. Sometimes there is no safe square at all.
How the queen attacks pieces
The queen can attack from a safe square, capture another piece on the way, or attack several pieces with one move, along a file, a rank and diagonals at the same time.
Squares attacked by two pieces at once
Your child learns to find squares attacked by two pieces at the same time: two of their own, two of the opponent’s, or one of each. This is how you tell which squares are defended and which are not.
Test yourself: exercises on everything you’ve learned
A mix of exercises on every topic in this stage: how the queen moves, capturing and attacking.