Lets play a game of Chess

[neochiny]

Too passive. I say we keep the queen on the forth rank with 9. Qh4 to maintain the pressure.

maintain the pressure? it is very dangerous to be the queen there.
instead.. lets make our every piece move first before attacking. Qh4 is useless in the end.

[Foxpup]

What are you talking about? Qh4 is perfectly safe. If Black wants to mess up his pawn structure chasing the queen around, I say let him.

The guideline to "move every piece first" means to move them to squares where they can be useful. c2 isn't a particularly useful square for the queen, while h4 is, as it helps control both the centre and Black's kingside, and makes Bg5 safe by pinning the rook's pawn. How can you say it's useless?

[Timelord2067]

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

[neochiny]

What are you talking about? Qh4 is perfectly safe. If Black wants to mess up his pawn structure chasing the queen around, I say let him.

The guideline to "move every piece first" means to move them to squares where they can be useful. c2 isn't a particularly useful square for the queen, while h4 is, as it helps control both the centre and Black's kingside, and makes Bg5 safe by pinning the rook's pawn. How can you say it's useless?

look sir... if you put it there... his possible move is Be7. and if you put Bg5 he can simply move h6. your Queen will be misplace...

[Foxpup]

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

Until Black drives it away with 9... Nd5.

[Timelord2067]

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

Until Black drives it away with 9... Nd5.

At which point H.R.H. moves to G5 threatening the (other) Queen and is covered by both a knight in shining armour and a Bishop.

[Timelord2067]

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

Until Black drives it away with 9... Nd5.

At which point H.R.H. moves to G5 threatening the (other) Queen and is covered by both a knight in shining armour and a Bishop.

Which would clear the way for G2's Bishop to take out a8's Rook.

[actmyname]

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

Until Black drives it away with 9... Nd5.

At which point H.R.H. moves to G5 threatening the (other) Queen and is covered by both a knight in shining armour and a Bishop.

Which would clear the way for G2's Bishop to take out a8's Rook.

What are you talking about? Knight is on d5, remember? After Qxg5 Nxg5 Rb8, black is easily better.

[jjacob]

I would go with Qc2.
I admit that it does look passive, but you should be leading with your minor pieces at this stage of the game, not the Queen.
Plus I would like to be on the diagonal with h7 (might develop an attack in the future).

[actmyname]

I would go with Qc2.
I admit that it does look passive, but you should be leading with your minor pieces at this stage of the game, not the Queen.
Plus I would like to be on the diagonal with h7 (might develop an attack in the future).

Qc2 is the correct choice.
After 9... Bb7
10. Nbd2 and then we fianchetto the bishop later with b3 Bb2. Keep it at an optimal location to prevent a c4 push/break if he plays Rc8

[Taras]

I too vote Qc2, we can't risk putting the queen in trouble right now

[languagehasmeaning]

I also vote for 9. Qc2

On f4 our queen can be easily attacked with Nd5 or even Bd6 at some point in the future (after black plays Nb6 guarding the d6 square with his queen).
On h4 our queen does not seem well placed after an eventual Be7

[Foxpup]

It seems 9. Qc2 has overwhelming support.

[languagehasmeaning]

What are you talking about? Qh4 is perfectly safe. If Black wants to mess up his pawn structure chasing the queen around, I say let him.

The guideline to "move every piece first" means to move them to squares where they can be useful. c2 isn't a particularly useful square for the queen, while h4 is, as it helps control both the centre and Black's kingside, and makes Bg5 safe by pinning the rook's pawn. How can you say it's useless?

I agree it is safe in the short run. I am worried about a few moves down the road.

For example:
9.  Qh4   Bb7
10. Bg5   Be7
11. Nbd2 0-0 (stopping that h file pin you mention and preparing 12.... h6)

[abacus]

It seems 9. Qc2 has overwhelming support.

Indeed. For what it's worth, I'd have voted Qh4.

Qc2 is really too conservative. It seems to me like we skip a beat...
Isn't the White supposed to play the game (with the Black acting consequently) in the first moves?

A question for all:
if offered the chance, would you swap the Queens at this stage? (yes for me)

[languagehasmeaning]

It seems 9. Qc2 has overwhelming support.

Indeed. For what it's worth, I'd have voted Qh4.

Qc2 is really too conservative. It seems to me like we skip a beat...
Isn't the White supposed to play the game (with the Black acting consequently) in the first moves?

A question for all:
if offered the chance, would you swap the Queens at this stage? (yes for me)

I would trade queens if we had a chance and would support Qh4 if you can show me how that would lead to a trade. My guess is that he would play Be7 before moving the knight on f6 so we would never get the chance to trade our h4 queen for his on d8.

No matter what we do I bet he plays Bb7 next. Otherwise we can play Ne5 and open up our bishop on the long diagonal attacking his rook. He cannot escape with Rb8 or Ra7 because we can play Nc6 forking his rook and queen. So he would have to just take our knight with his and allow us to take his rook. I wish we could move twice in a row before he could play Bb7!

[abacus]

I would trade queens if we had a chance and would support Qh4 if you can show me how that would lead to a trade. My guess is that he would play Be7 before moving the knight on f6 so we would never get the chance to trade our h4 queen for his on d8.

Yes, that chance is unlikely. I intended my question more in general and not specifically related to Qh4.

No matter what we do I bet he plays Bb7 next. Otherwise we can play Ne5 and open up our bishop on the long diagonal attacking his rook. He cannot escape with Rb8 or Ra7 because we can play Nc6 forking his rook and queen. So he would have to just take our knight with his and allow us to take his rook. I wish we could move twice in a row before he could play Bb7!

I'm confident we can play something like this once we exit the check to our queen.

[Foxpup]

Indeed. For what it's worth, I'd have voted Qh4.

Finally, someone else can see sense.

Qc2 is really too conservative. It seems to me like we skip a beat...
Isn't the White supposed to play the game (with the Black acting consequently) in the first moves?

Exactly. Although the traditional idea behind the Réti opening is to wait for Black to mess up the centre before you do, that only applies to pawn structure.

A question for all:
if offered the chance, would you swap the Queens at this stage? (yes for me)

Absolutely not! All else being equal, never trade an active piece for an inactive one! Our queen is well-placed (Black isn't forcing it away just for the fun of it!) while his isn't doing much at all, and this is a situation we want to maintain as long as possible. Conversely, Black will likely want to trade queens when he can, and may try to force the issue.

I would trade queens if we had a chance and would support Qh4 if you can show me how that would lead to a trade. My guess is that he would play Be7 before moving the knight on f6 so we would never get the chance to trade our h4 queen for his on d8.

We can after Bg5 and trading the bishops, but why would you want to trade queens in the first place?

No matter what we do I bet he plays Bb7 next. Otherwise we can play Ne5 and open up our bishop on the long diagonal attacking his rook. He cannot escape with Rb8 or Ra7 because we can play Nc6 forking his rook and queen. So he would have to just take our knight with his and allow us to take his rook.

Huh? No, he can always just block the bishop with Nd5.

[Timelord2067]

It seems 9. Qc2 has overwhelming support.

Indeed. For what it's worth, I'd have voted Qh4.

Qc2 is really too conservative. It seems to me like we skip a beat...
Isn't the White supposed to play the game (with the Black acting consequently) in the first moves?

A question for all:
if offered the chance, would you swap the Queens at this stage? (yes for me)

I would trade queens if we had a chance and would support Qh4 if you can show me how that would lead to a trade. My guess is that he would play Be7 before moving the knight on f6 so we would never get the chance to trade our h4 queen for his on d8.

No matter what we do I bet he plays Bb7 next. Otherwise we can play Ne5 and open up our bishop on the long diagonal attacking his rook. He cannot escape with Rb8 or Ra7 because we can play Nc6 forking his rook and queen. So he would have to just take our knight with his and allow us to take his rook. I wish we could move twice in a row before he could play Bb7!

Hi and thanks for supporting my suggestion to move the Bishop to take his rook later-on that was rubbished by actmyname.

White Queen to F4 keeps H.M. on the fourth row but covers more of the table on three forward / diagonals.

Until Black drives it away with 9... Nd5.

At which point H.R.H. moves to G5 threatening the (other) Queen and is covered by both a knight in shining armour and a Bishop.

Which would clear the way for G2's Bishop to take out a8's Rook.

The only reason I didn't say Qh4 was to allow the Knight out and for the Queen to stand watch.

[abacus]

A question for all:
if offered the chance, would you swap the Queens at this stage? (yes for me)

Absolutely not! All else being equal, never trade an active piece for an inactive one! Our queen is well-placed (Black isn't forcing it away just for the fun of it!) while his isn't doing much at all, and this is a situation we want to maintain as long as possible. Conversely, Black will likely want to trade queens when he can, and may try to force the issue.

Mmm... this makes a lot of sense. Good to know.

The only reason I didn't say Qh4 was to allow the Knight out and for the Queen to stand watch.

If we decide to attack the Rook in a8 with the Bishop by moving the Knight, we still have some other options to move it in a protected square. Or we simply could reserve this attack for a later move...
What about these options? Do they make Qh4 more interesting to your eyes?