All else being equal, what are you guy/gals thoughts on a queen exchange?

Being such a newbie to chess, I always assume that since my opponent can more than likely do more damage with his queen than I can, it would be good....... but...... well, thoughts???

Common new player thought.

The real answer is that it really, really depends on the position.

The simple answer is no, don't do this. This is something that we all think and try to do as we're learning chess (or at least I did), and it does make sense, but it doesn't work.

The rule of thumb that I learned that helped me was "Fantastic or forced." As in, don't trade pieces unless does something fantastic for your postion or you have no other choice. For a couple of reasons.

1) Against stronger players, the simpler the position, the less likely they are to make a mistake that you can win with. The more pieces on the board, the more they have to think about. Sure, it increases the chance of you making a mistake too, but you were probably going to do that anyway.

2) A stronger player won't be offering you a queen trade unless it improves his position in some way.

The newbie should put his time on training tactics instead, so that he can be the stronger player in the future

The encyclopedia of middlegames by chess informant was a boon for tactics for me.

On queens....with starting players if you are ahead material exchange the queens off...less chance for that sneak mate to hit you

a lot of players really grind down their position trying to exchange queens. dont do that, just put your pieces in good spots and those things take care of themselves

Yeah an important point mightytiny - if you are ahead exchanges generally favor you. The difference in material is pronounced by simplification.