Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Qg4

White's 2. Qg4 breaks the chess opening principle of not moving the queen out early, as the opponent will gain tempos by attacking the exposed queen. Not only that, it does not threaten Scholar's Mate, unlike the other early queen attacks Qh5 and Qf3.

Black's best replies are 2...Nf6 or 2...d5, which both attack the queen and gain easy tempo. White might move the queen to g3, to keep an attack on e5 and g7.^[1]

1. ↑ Kosten, Tony (March 2023). "1 e4 e5". Chess Publishing. Archived from the original on 2024-05-27. Retrieved 2025-11-23.