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STAY TUNED!! The power of the Queen !

STAY TUNED!! The power of the Queen !

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Longer post but hopefully worth reading !!

The power of the Queen in Chess. That's a powerful theme.

Explored by Netflix in the Queen's Gambit, not a King's Gambit for a reason.

In the final game, Beth Harmon uncorked Qxf6!! in the diagram below

What happened next is that the Rook took on f6 then gave a check on f8+ and as the pawn on e7 is protected by a hidden bishop on c5 , the e7 pawn promotes to a Queen ! Dramatic !

And Borgov resigned as per the picture below - courtesy of Netflix of course

Now in real life, Borgov would never smile when resigning in a crucial game like that. It's not like Borgov is one of the reddit users on WallStreetBets or having 5M followers on Instagram selling some merch, come on Netflix !  Beth Harmon looked shocked on the pic, the victory hasn't settled in I guess-> fantastic acting by Anya Taylor-Joy!

There is of course the  "Legend has it that after Marshall's winning last move of the game, gold coins were tossed onto the board by spectators"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitsky_versus_Marshall

is Qc3-g3!! in the diagram above the most famous Queen move in Chess History ??

Now does the Queen show power on the board in practical games ? Yes absolutely.

Example 1 the power of the Queen in the attack

The Queen closed to an exposed king leads to a quick checkmate with help of a knight and rook.

Example 2 with Black pieces: How the Queen works with a bishop and knight against the white king's castle.

Example 3 winning material with a double attack: White plays and win

White was behind in terms of material but a quick check on b8 followed by another check on b1 nets a full rook with a double attack on b1 and h7.
But one of themes I've seen over the years is sometimes you give the QUEEN AWAY to win the game with elegance and style.
Think      #BethHarmon power !
another photo worth thousand words

before we will present puzzles, lets go over the themes.

#1 the smothered checkmate is a classic presented in the next diagram

#2 the queen sacrifice, as the black king has NO ESCAPE SQUARE

#3 The queen offers herself against the bishop: setting a deadly checkmate net

#4 another mating net, thanks to the Queen being the super hero sacrificing herself !!

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NOW ITS YOUR TURN TO MASTER QUEEN MOVES.

PUZZLE #1: Can you find the elegant solution here ? Black to play

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and last but not least, one of the best practical example you could use in your own games !
 

PUZZLE #2: CAN YOU FIND THE PATH TO VICTORY ? BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN 

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