Principles explained #1 - Bringing out the queen too early

There are a lot of chess principles we hear all the time, but don’t necessarily understand, or never really investigate. The purpose of these posts is to take a closer look of those principles, and examine the logic behind them. 

Our principle for today is: "Don't bring out your queen too early!"

Let us examine what this means. 

1. What does “bring out" mean?

Bringing the queen out means moving the queen to the centre or close enough to the opponent’s pieces so it can be attacked by them. If you simply move or develop the queen in your own territory  (as Caruana did in the game below), it does not count as "bringing it out".

Note that the first piece Black develops in this game is the queen - and there is nothing wrong with that.

2. What does "too early" mean?

You brought out your queen too early if:

- Your opponent can win tempos on it, i.e. attack it with useful developing moves, or

- Your opponent can still change the character of the position (e.g. by changing the pawn structure, or castling to the opposite side as expected), and thereby making your queen badly placed. 

See the examples below:

Having said that, if you clearly see where your queen belongs to and you don't give tempos to your opponent with it, don't hesitate to develop it early! I will just give you two examples where the early queen sortie was indeed the best option. The first one is from the Swedish GM Johnny Hector, the second one is from yours truly.

If you are looking for quality coaching to improve your game, I am currently accepting new students. Feel free to send me a private message here or on hogata11@gmail.com.