Countering The Wayward Queen Attack I'm a new player =I just started playing again after an over 10 year hiatus. I'm (sadly) in the 600s.
I've been studying openings and I seem to do better in games where I can use the Italian game or Ruy Lopez. However, there's a strange game that I continually lose a slow and painful game against and it's the family of plays that have the queen out causing havoc early. In particular, the [Wayward Queen Attack][1] has been at the heart of every game I've lost in the last 3 days.
I mostly contribute this to my lack of piece development out of fear of losing pieces to a queen. How should I counter it?
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayward_Queen_Attack &quot;The Wayward Queen Attack&quot;
First of all, despite the stigma attached to early queen moves Nakamura has played the white side of 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 several times in top level play, so it is a move you should treat with respect.
The best approach is probably to play moves like 2... Nc6 to protect the e pawn, 3... g6 to kick away the queen, then Nf6, Bg7, castles to get your king safe. Then if the white queen is still in the middle of the board try and attack it with your pieces.
Then you are in a normal game and if you blunder pieces because of your low rating then consider that your low rating is probably because of your poor tactical ability. To correct this you need to work on tactics. Learn about pins, forks, skewers, discovered attacks, etc. and do lots of puzzles to try and improve.