Keeping Queen in Check

There was an interesting article in the New York Post written by Andy Soltis. It discussed a proposed rule by GM Vassily Ivanchuk that will force a player to move the queen if it is attacked. They give the line 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6. Now the Queen is “in check” and must be moved. In other words, 5.Bb5 is illegal because of 5…Nxd4.

I don’t particularly like this rule. The first reason is that I play the above line with white. 🙂 Secondly, this severely limits the power of the pin, an important tactic in chess. Third, what would happen if queen attacks queen?

What do you think of this variant and chess variants in general?

Source: https://www.nypost.com/seven/02012009/entertainment/check_her_out_152972.htm

4 Comments

  1. Presumbly queen cannot attack queen otherwise there would be kissing queens. I already tell novice junior players that you cannot have kissing kings.

  2. Queen endings are already challenging enough! That means the queen can never interpose when the king is checked by the opposing queen… or any other piece for that matter.

  3. bad rule. for two reasons.
    Reason#1: for the reason above..at one time i did play that line and might come back to it at some point.
    Reason #2: it kind of takes some “fun” out of the game…there are some parts of the game where i like not having to move pieces that have been attacked by making those “in-between” moves..if attacking the queen was check..that would take some of that away…i’m glab it’s not a real rule.

  4. Yeah that rule changes the game for me and I wouldn’t like that. But it would be interesting to understand why this change is imposed?

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