You'd go and get the queen or the rooks right out there

[shootingstar]

'I remember when we started playing chess in the school library, you used to lose your best players straight away,' she said. 'You'd go and get the queen or the rooks right out there, and they'd be gone. And then you would act like the game was lost because you were just left with pawns and a knight or two.'
(The Midnigt Library by Matt Haig, episode Love and Pain)

What does "You go and get the queen or the rooks out there" mean , chiefly what does "go and get out" mean in this context - does it express a sudden or hasty movement or action?

 

[emsr2d2]

It means "Habitually, when we played chess, you would move the queen or the rooks out into the open very quickly, and then I would take them". I guess you could take "go and get the [nouns] out there" as simply "You would pick up those pieces and move them from their 'home' positions". There's no suggestion of a specific speed.

 

[Skrej]

While there's a sense of immediacy to the overall actions, it doesn't mean the pieces themselves were physically moved with speed, no. As early as possible (allowing for the movement rules of the pieces in question), the player moves the queen and rooks into play, only to subsequently have them taken by the opponent.

Of course if you're familiar with the rules of chess, it would take a few turns to open pathways to even allow the rooks and queens to move into play. Once that does happen however, then the player subsequently loses them.

Anyone familiar with chess would recognize this as a generally poor strategy anyway. Typically you save the rooks for castling to protect the king, then use your queen after developing some defenses with bishops and knights along with positioning your pawns. Skilled chess players don't normally go straight for the powerful queen right away.

It speaks to a general sense of ineptitude as a chess player, confirmed by the facts that the player subsequently not only loses those powerful pieces, but has a habit of repeatedly doing so without learning from prior mistakes.