Queen exchange

Yesterday's Daily Puzzle involved a Queen exchange to win a minor piece from the exchange. Has anyone here actually done that in a live game?

So, you don't mind playing without Queens in the Middle game?

Learn to play and win without your Queen. Many top level games are determined without Queens on the board.

I've given up my Queen for compensation many times before. A lot of beginning players refuse to play without their Queen because they can't get past the mental block of giving up the piece with the most point value (other than the King which ends the game when checkmated). It is true that the Queen is a powerful piece, but so are many other pieces together if you know how to coordinate without a Queen. More common is the situation of exchanging a Queen for both of the enemy Rooks, but sometimes in high level games you'll also see one side give up a Queen for three minor pieces or give up the Queen for a Rook, minor piece, and maybe a pawn.

As you gain more chess experience, you'll gain confidence in knowing how to play with or without a Queen and then you'll treat a Queen vs no Queen middlegame just as another imbalance.

Giving up a queen for three minor pieces sounds so exciting!!
Never had that happen before I've only seen this kind of situation once....like 7 mo ago...in a 960 game i resigned not realizing the position was near equal at that point because if they took the queen it would be a queen for three pieces...(white to move...)

Cool position and yes exchanging a Queen for 3 minor pieces doesn't come up often. I was actually able to sacrifice my Queen for 3 minor pieces in an OTB game of mine about a year ago. It was a great positional game and I ended up winning with the cool imbalance.

I think this was a risky play because the engine shows a line where the Black Queen can win a minor piece. So, White actually loses a Queen and a minor piece to gain two Black minor pieces. I think you really have to be good at calculation to try Queen exchanges. I've seen it done by GMs. So, I think it's an advanced tactic that could easily backfire with lower rated players. If it does backfire, suddenly you need to co-ordinate the other pieces in combinations that you're not used to.

What line do you have in mind? I have white just losing a pawn edit: apparently the pawn capture is bad for white....in any case eval was like -1.1

There are many cases where exchanging Queens is advantageous. To win material is one of the most obvious. Others cases include, to set up Checkmate, to neutralise a threat, to create a beneficial pawn structure or to advance towards an advantageous endgame.

@Mickdonedee, fascinating, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't bother to look that deep; just remembered the position because i immediately resigned thinking it was dead lost.

Although the Eval is fairly even (0.4 in favour of Black after the Black Queen captures back the White Bishop) I think Black's Queen would soon capture more material using it's flexibility unless White was skilled at co-ordinating both Rooks against the Black Queen. Psychologically, it looks like a tough game ahead for White where any mistake could be costly.