Hello and welcome to the Kids Academy chess course! My name is Robert Lazorczyk, and I’m here to help you learn all about the exciting game of chess. Today, we’re going to discover something really cool about the game. Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
Today, we’re going to learn about the queen, the strongest piece on the chessboard! The queen is super powerful because she can move like two other pieces: the rook and the bishop. This means she can move up and down, side to side, and even diagonally!
You might think that a piece’s strength depends on how tall it is. Some people think pawns are weak because they’re short, and the king is strong because he’s tall. But that’s not true! A piece’s strength is really about how many squares it can control or attack. Since the queen can move like both a rook and a bishop, she can control lots of squares, making her the strongest piece!
Let’s see how many squares the queen can move to. Imagine the queen is on the fifth row and the d-column. First, let’s count her rook moves: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Now, let’s count her bishop moves: eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Finally, let’s count the diagonal moves: fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Wow! The queen can attack 27 squares!
Let’s practice moving the queen. If the queen moves to h5, is that a rook move or a bishop move? If you said rook move, you’re right! She moved side to side. Now, if the queen goes from h5 to d1, is that a rook move or a bishop move? It’s a bishop move because she moved diagonally!
Imagine there are two black rooks, one on b5 and one on g4. Which one can the queen capture? If you guessed the rook on g4, you’re correct! The queen can move diagonally like a bishop to capture it.
Now, let’s say there’s a rook on b4. The queen can capture it by moving like a rook along the fourth row. Isn’t that cool?
What if we want the queen to go to f7 in two moves? There are many ways she can do it! Let’s count them: she can move up and over, over and up, diagonally down, over one and diagonally, or on the dark square diagonal. That’s six different paths!
Thanks for learning with us today! Remember, the more you practice, the better you’ll get at chess. Keep exploring and have fun playing!
Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting videos. See you next time!
Queen’s Path Challenge: Create a simple chessboard using a piece of paper and draw a grid. Place a small object or a coin to represent the queen on the board. Ask your child to move the queen to different squares using the rules they learned. Challenge them to find the shortest path to a specific square and count how many moves it takes. Can they find more than one way to reach the same square?
Chess Piece Detective: Go on a “chess piece hunt” around your home or classroom. Look for objects that remind you of chess pieces. For example, a tall bottle could be a rook, and a small toy could be a pawn. Discuss with your child why they think each object resembles a particular chess piece. Encourage them to explain how each piece moves and what makes the queen special compared to the other pieces.
Story Time with the Queen: Encourage your child to create a short story or comic strip about a day in the life of the queen on a chessboard. What adventures does she have? What challenges does she face? How does she use her special ability to move like a rook and a bishop to solve problems? This activity helps children use their imagination while reinforcing their understanding of the queen’s movements.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
—
Welcome to Kids Academy! Hi and welcome to the Kids Academy chess course. My name is Robert Lazorczyk, and I’m a certified teacher with international and national chess teaching certifications. I will be your guide as we begin to master this great game. Now, let’s get to the chess!
Today, I’m very excited because we are going to learn about the strongest piece in chess—the queen! The queen is so strong because she can move like a rook and a bishop. She can move on ranks, files, and diagonals.
Now, you might be wondering what determines how strong a piece is. A lot of young chess players tell me that it depends on how tall they are. They think pawns are the weakest because they are the shortest piece, and they believe the king is the strongest because he’s the tallest. While the queen is quite strong because she’s almost as tall as the king, that’s not the whole story.
What really determines a piece’s strength is how many squares it can control or attack. Since the queen can move like a rook and a bishop, she can attack the most number of squares on the board, making her the strongest piece.
Let’s take a look for ourselves and count how many squares this queen can move to. First, I’ll highlight the rook movements. The queen is on the fifth rank and the d-file. Now, I’ll make my diagonal lines like a bishop.
Now, let’s count the squares together. Starting from the bottom: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, along the rank; eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen; the diagonals: fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty; and our last diagonal: twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Wow! This queen is attacking 27 squares. She is very strong and very fast!
Let’s practice moving the queen. I’ll move the queen over to h5. Is this a rook move or a bishop move? If you said the queen just moved like a rook, you’d be absolutely right! The queen moved along the rank, going side to side.
If the queen is on h5 and decides to go to d1, would that be a rook move or a bishop move? Starting on a light square and ending on a light square, going through the corners on the slant—that’s a diagonal, which is how a bishop moves.
Which piece can the queen capture in this game? There are two black rooks, one on b5 and one on g4. Which rook is the queen aiming at? If you said g4, you’re absolutely correct! The queen can move like a bishop and capture this rook on g4.
Now, let’s put a rook here and a bishop here. It’s white to play. Which piece can the queen capture? Once again, the queen can capture the rook, this time using her rook movement, sliding along the fourth rank to capture the rook on b4.
What if we wanted this queen to go to f7? How could the queen get to f7 in two moves? Think of as many paths as you can. Because she can move like a rook and a bishop, she actually has more than two different paths.
Let’s count them together. We can move like the rook, going up and over; we can go over and up; we can move like a bishop and go down diagonally; that’s the third way. We can also go over one and diagonally; that’s a fourth way. We can move on the dark square diagonal like a bishop; this is the fifth way. We can go all the way up to the eighth rank and then down—that’s six different ways!
Thanks for watching! Bye-bye!
Subscribe to our channel to stay updated on new videos. Find links to our apps in the comments below.
—
This version maintains the educational content while removing any informal or unclear language.
