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Bring out the queen early in the opening is generally against opening principles. There are a few exceptions, for instance, many of the lines in the Scandinavian Defense. However, this general maxim is true outside of specific opening theory, even at the beginner-intermediate level. Developing the queen is an aggressive move and without obvious immediate tactics, there are many risks. For instance, the other player can often attack the queen with pawns and lower valued pieces and win valuable tempo. They get to develop their pieces, while you have to move your queen out of attacks or make attacks to justify its location. However, with limited other development, this can be difficult to achieve and coordinate.

This was another game in round 2 of the Australia Day Tournament where I played the Vienna Game – e4 e5 Nc3. My opponent played an unusual c6 to which I responded by immediately taking the centre with d4. A general tactical idea is that if you can take the centre with pawns, it is often good to do so even if it isn’t the most accurate move.

Soon afterwards, my opponent developed their queen to f6 and what occurred in the game is a good demonstration of why you shouldn’t bring out your queen early, or first! In the first 12 moves of the game, my opponent ended up moving their queen 8 times, with the final move returning the queen to her home square of d8! This left the position in the extraordinary state that at the end of 12 moves, my opponent had only a single pawn off their starting square with all other pieces remaining undeveloped! This was a catastrophic loss of tempo and they opted to resign move 16 with an impending checkmate on the way.

The insight from this game is largely that opening principles should generally be maintained. Take the centre with pawns. Develop pieces. Castle. Avoid early queen moves. As for playing the Vienna Game? One of the themes is that the set up can often entice the opponent to bring out their queen early, especially to f6 in several lines. This often ends up being good for the Vienna player as it’s something that can often be exploited.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/405301887

[Event "TA 2022 Australia Day Tournament Div 3  ratings up to 1150 - Round 2"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.05.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Arkamedys"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C25"]
[WhiteElo "1209"]
[BlackElo "1058"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[EndDate "2022.05.28"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 c6 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Qf6 5. e5 Qg6 6. Ne4 d6 7. exd6 Qe6 8. Be3 Qd5 9. O-O-O Qxa2 10. Bc4 Qa1+ 11. Kd2 Qa5+ 12. Ke2 Qd8 13. Qe5+ Be6 14. Bxe6 Nd7 15. Bxd7+ Kxd7 16. Nc5+ 1-0