queen trades

is it better to trade queens against a higher ranked player or a lower ranked one? i'm not asking about trading to gain advantage. that i'd do against anyone. to trade against a better player so the q cant bite you, or trade against someone you may be better than so they have less pieces to work with?

Higher ranked, try to trade early every time. Unless they have a good endgame, in which case you're dead.

Against lower ranked only when you're up material.

I like my chances the other way around... With lower ranked players ill trade all day to clear up the board, leaving less chances for a blunder on my part. Im going to lose most of the time against a higher ranked player anyways, so I try to hold on to material and wait until an exchange can be made on my terms.

one & one. both good plans. lets see who else says something

Apart from the general rule to exchange pieces when ahead in material (and it's a general rule with many exceptions), just take advantage of the opportunity to increase your knowledge and skill, especially when playing a stronger player.

Analyze the postion carefully and come up with a plan. Execute the plan as best

you can. If you see some concrete advantage if you can exchange queens then

go for it.  If you feel overwhelmed by the unseen possibilities of the enemy

queen then you just need to learn more about chess and gain skill.

so your saying if i feel my endgame may be a weakspot, dont trade?

thanks. it's something i think about alot. sometimes i choose correct, sometimes......

This depends on your opponent.  Some opponents use their queen a lot.  When they do this, they seem to be lost without their queen.  If this is the case it is a good idea to remove their queen.  Also I like to remove queens because like someone else said, "It removes their chance to bite you."  It is much better if you can force a queen loss without it being a trade.  Duh

It really depends on the position. Make sure the queen actually does something or highlight's something in your position (say, an endgame advantage.) Mindlessly trading queens just cuz you're afraid of what your opponent might be able to do it really seems like a silly thing to do.

Ill trade you a chilly dog and a pint of beer for your queen., I might even throw in a pawn on the deal.

It doesn't really matter what your opponent is rated. You should only trade pieces to get a positional advantage. If you trade queens for the heck of it, that's not going to do anything. You should also trade queens if your oppoenent's queen is in a very powerful spot.

Lower ranked players tend not to know how to play without the queen more often than higher ranked ones so I try to throw a queen exchange out there when I can. Usually they will try to avoid it in some way by moving the queen away or blocking the exchange with another piece without thinking of the possible consequences. Queen dependency can be a leading cause of chess blindness in some players. 

i say play every game on its merits,acces suituation to see if it warrants trading or not

No no no never trade to avoid biting, that's so boring, I hate it when people do that.

Well, generally a trade is favourable if you are already ahead in pieces because any further exchange exaggerates the material difference

I trade queens early to force the K to take otherwise I try to keep her in play.

zlhflans wrote:

is it better to trade queens against a higher ranked player or a lower ranked one? i'm not asking about trading to gain advantage. that i'd do against anyone. to trade against a better player so the q cant bite you, or trade against someone you may be better than so they have less pieces to work with?

Well, the only reason you should ever exchange material is if it gains you an advantage.

However, for the sake of discussion, it's probably best to trade queens against a lower-rated player. Chances are that lower-rated player has less endgame knowledge, so trading off the queens gets you closer to the endgame. Against a higher-rated player, you should only trade when it gives you an advantage. Trading for any other reason would simply be playing into his/her hands.

ignoring positional advantage, i will trade off my queen or other pieces against a player who is very strong with that specific piece.

Unless it will take me to an unfavorable endgame, I always trade queens.  I would much rather be strategizing an endgame than looking out for tactics and mate in twos every turn, but that's just my style.

If I had to pick I would rather trade against the stronger player because that would give me better drawing chances.

All things being equal, do you prefer to play with Qs or without them ?