Since the Queen is your most powerful piece, you should develop it first to start an attack as fast as possible. Right?
No, that's wrong. It's very wrong. It's so wrong that it's considered one of the worst mistakes to make in the opening. There are at least two reasons why you shouldn't launch an early attack with the Queen.
First, attacks by a single piece are seldom successful. Imagine a battle between equal armies where one side first sends over one soldier on a solo attack. That soldier is stopped in his tracks. Then it sends over another soldier, who suffers the same fate. When there are no more soldiers to be sent, the battle is over; the solo soldier side has lost. That's what happens in chess when you attack with one piece at a time.
Second, the Queen is such a powerful piece that any attack on it is likely to be from a less powerful piece. If the Queen is attacked by a lesser piece, you can't ignore it or you will lose the game. That means the Queen has to move to dodge the attack. When you expose your Queen too early, the opponent can gain time developing pieces that attack the Queen.
An enemy piece develops with an attack on your Queen; you move the Queen. Another piece develops with an attack on your Queen; you move the Queen again. After these two moves, your opponent has developed two pieces and you have developed none. Who has the better game? Your opponent.
When you develop your Queen in the opening, put it on a square where it
- can jump into an attack if necessary,
- can't be threatened easily by the enemy pieces, and
- doesn't get in the way of your minor pieces.
Those are a lot of objectives for one move. They might seem contradictory and you might not be able to achieve them at the same time, but no one ever said that chess was easy.
