Why is the queen the most powerful piece in chess Reddit

Posted by4 years ago

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I remember being told that chess is a very old game. Why then, is the queen the strongest piece in the game (she can move around the easiest), and the king so weak (can only move 1 space). I was wondering why it is like this because intuitively it seems historically inaccurate. I understand that the game is won and lost on the king and in that sense he is the most powerful piece. But even then the queen seems really powerful compared to other pieces. When historically is seems that the queens carried very little power. Is there a reason historically that this is the way it is. Or am i missing something obvious?

I assume you mean historically, and I will address that first. If you mean tactically I will answer that at the end.

Originally, the piece we call a queen was called a "minister" or "vizir" in various languages. It could move one square diagonally, making it a weak piece and making pawn promotion less important. Incidentally, this made check mating your opponent much more difficult. We think this piece was renamed "queen" between 1475 and 1495 CE and that the piece's scope was redefined at the same time. This likely occurred in Spain, but could have occurred in Italy, France, etc.

Some ascribe this change to Queen Isabella of Spain, particularly after her role in the Siege of Málaga (1487), but Marilyn Yalom cites earlier depictions of the Virgin Mary as the chess-queen of God (112-114), and this could have also inspired the change. What we do know is the oldest surviving book detailing the queen's new movement is Lucena's 1497 book Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess.

This change was not adopted quickly and universally, though some have argued the Reconquista and the advent of the printing press helped spread these changes. And this still was not the modern version of chess we play today; important changes like rules on stalemate and castling would come later.

Sources:

Yalom, Marilyn (2004). Birth of the Chess Queen: a History (Illustrated ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-009064-2.

Murray, H. J. R. (1913). A History of Chess. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-827403-3.

Now regarding the tactical importance of the queen, it comes from its mobility. A queen in the center of the board can directly influence 27/63 other squares. To put that in perspective, the next most mobile piece, the rook, can influence 14/63. This makes the queen nearly twice as powerful, and is reflected in their assumed "point" values: queen=9, rook=5.

It didn't represent just any minister. It represented the vizier/wazir, the highest minister The guy who pull all the strings and gets everything done.

They converted it to queen to bring it to Europe. The Queen was a more significant position in Europe while the king's top minister was less official.

Politically the king's right hand was arguably more influential than the king himself. The king tended to rule by delegating. All the people that wanted stuff would usually go to him. He had all the connections to make everything happen.

Chess historians believe that the piece we call as the queen today was not originally known as the queen. It was originally called the "fers" or "advisor". Shockingly, it was one of the weakest pieces on the board as it could only move one square diagonally.

That means the game of chess existed without the queen for so many years.

In the 15th century, history took some turns. The game of chess moved to European countries and several revisions were made to the existing chess rules. Most importantly, revisions were made to the piece which we now know as the queen piece.

level 1

The queen has got the most interesting history of all chess pieces. First, she was a man, the adviser of the king. The figure goes back to the old Persians. The adviser, called "Firzan", could move one field diagonally and served for the safety of the king. The figure was taken over by the Arabs and was changed very much. Later, the Europeans called the figure "Fers", derived from "Firzan". Because they did not know the meaning of the word "Fers", they interpreted the figure as queen, because she is standing beside the king.

http://www.chess.com/blog/rishikeshwaran/the-history-of-chess-pieces

level 2

"And this piece is called, the 'Firzan'"

"Fers, got it."

"No.. actually it's 'Firzan'. It represents the king's ad-"

"Yep yep, The King's Wife, sure, makes sense. We call that the 'Q U E E N.' Anyway mate I gotta go, thanks for the games."

level 2

Thank you! By the way, in russian, the queen is called ferz.

level 2

Awesome. I love stories like this where the language barrier ends up with something different than originally intended.

My favorite Indian dish is vindaloo (just like Lister). But the dish is originally Portuguese and was not made with potatoes. The name of the dish was originally Carne de vinha d'alhos, meat with wine and garlic.

The word "aloo" , which sounds sort of similar to alhos, is a south asian word for potatoes. Now all indian vindaloo dishes are cooked with chunks of potatoes in them. I don't mind. I like them being there.

Damn it, now I want some vindaloo.

level 2

It's still ferz in Russian. Also the rook is called a boat (ladya) and bishop is elephant.

level 2

And i think she only used to be able to move 1 space diagonally. Also in variation, the couriers chess, the board was a little wider and had extra pieces. One piece was the maiden(? Not sure about the name. It was some servant of the Queen) which could only move one space orthogonally.

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Adviser aka Minister aka Hand of the King

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This is actually so cool, because lots of ancient words that derived from eastern countries are actually different than what they should have been because of translation.

Translation from Language A to Arabic to Latin or another western language often caused confusion since Arabic does not include certain letter sounds, so they had to do with using a pre-existing letter. When the word reached the western translation, the western translator had no idea what the arabic word meant so he often assumed what seemed best in the context.

Our words for sine, cosine, and tan are actually a result of this similar mistranslation.

level 2

oddly enough in Slavic languages (Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian etc) the figure is still called Ferz' with a mild Z on the end.

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I had always assumed that it was a comment on being a public figure. The king can move in any direction, but is constrained by his office and public scrutiny. The queen at his side, without as much formal power but with the ability to affect things behind the scenes, can move in any direction and go as far as she wants.

Obviously I overthought it.

level 2

This doesn't actually explain why she has so much power, though.

EDIT: it looks like the actual explanation is this.

level 1

Chess as we know it came from either the Indian game Chaturanga or the Persian game Shatranj. They each had a piece next to the king that was called the advisor or councilor, and it only moved one square diagonally. That game gradually spread to Europe, China, and Japan, each of which developed its own form of chess.

The modern queen move (rook's moves plus bishop's moves) is believed to have developed in Spain under the rule of Queen Isabella I in the late 1400's. People in that society would not have had any issue seeing a woman as being powerful. From that point, and since a modern queen is clearly a better way to play than having a weak piece that can only move one or two squares diagonally, it spread around Europe.

level 2

I would appreciate a link, if you can.

level 2

The modern queen move (rook's moves plus bishop's moves) is believed to have developed in Spain under the rule of Queen Isabella I in the late 1400's.

Hah - She would have. Lizzy acts like she owns the entire world. Fitting she travels around the board like it's nothing.

level 2

I am Indian, and my parents always called the queen's piece the "General."

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Thanks for the high standard of accuracy and sourcing in your reply. It's always nice to see posts full of information that seems pretty reliable, especially when it can be sourced.

level 1

The Queen was originally the Vizier, which is an advisor to the King. The Vizier had alot of power.... the King gave the command but the Vizier would usually be the one influencing his decisions.

Chess originated in the Indo-Persian area, where the name Vizier comes from. As it spread thru Europe, it was eventually renamed as the Queen. Almost all Kings have some type of main advisor to help them rule, tho they may not be called Vizer in other parts of the world. The name was probably confusing and got lost in translation, ending up being replaced with the Queen.

Interesting Fact: Jafar from Aladdin is the Grand Vizier for the King.

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