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Where do the White and Black queens begin a chess game?

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A chessboard showing the standard starting position for a game, with white and black pieces arranged in two rows on each side: rooks, knights, bishops, queen, and king on the back row, and pawns in front. — chess Position of chess pieces at the beginning of a game. The pieces are placed on the two ranks closest to the player. In the closest rank, pieces are arranged from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. In front of that rank, each square has a pawn.

In the game of chess, the starting positions for the queens are fixed to ensure a standard setup for every match. The White queen begins the game on the d1 square, while the Black queen begins on the d8 square.1

These positions are central to the board's layout, defining the "queenside" of the chessboard.2