Is the fifty-move rule fifty moves each or fifty in total?

Fifty by each player, so a hundred moves in all. The scoresheet shows fifty numbered move pairs with no capture and no pawn push anywhere in them. People who count to fifty single moves claim far too early, and a failed claim hands two minutes to the opponent.

Does giving check reset the fifty-move count?

No. Only two things reset it: a capture of any piece or pawn by either side, and any pawn move by either side. Checks, castling, promotions of a piece already promoted, king walks, rook shuffles and offers of a draw all leave the count running. Castling does not reset it either, because no pawn moves and nothing is taken.

Do I lose my extra queen if fifty moves pass?

The result is a draw regardless of what you have. A player with a queen and two rooks who cannot mate for fifty moves gets a half point, the same as everybody else. That is the point of the rule: it stops a player torturing an opponent in a position he cannot actually win.

The fifty-move rule explained

Your opponent has a bare king, you have a king, a bishop and a knight, and he starts writing a number next to each move on his scoresheet. He is counting to fifty. He has every right to, and if you have not learned the mate, he will get there.

Bishop and knight against a lone king. With correct play this is mate in at most thirty-three moves from any starting position, which leaves seventeen in hand under the fifty-move rule. Played badly, fifty is not nearly enough.

Article 9.3 is the rule: when the last fifty moves by each player have been completed with no capture and no pawn move, the player to move may claim a draw. Fifty by each, so a hundred moves on the scoresheet.

What resets the count

Two things, and only two. A capture, by either side. A pawn move, by either side. Everything else leaves the counter running: checks, king walks, rook shuffles, castling, a queen touring the board.

That is why the count is easy to track even without a scoresheet. The moment a pawn moves or something comes off, you are back at zero and you have another fifty to work with. In a rook endgame with pawns still on the board it almost never bites. In a bare king-and-queen or king-and-rook ending it is the only clock that matters.

If you ever look at a FEN string, the fifth field is that counter: the number of half-moves since the last capture or pawn move. A FEN ending ... 0 41 is a position where something has just been taken or a pawn has just moved. ... 87 60 means the claim is thirteen half-moves away.

Making the claim

The procedure is the same as threefold repetition, and it has the same trap. You must have the move, and you claim before you play, not after.

If the fiftieth move by each player has just been completed and it is your turn, stop the clocks and tell the arbiter. If your next move will complete it, write that move on your scoresheet without playing it, stop the clocks and declare. Get the count wrong and you must play the written move anyway, with two minutes added to your opponent’s clock.

The scoresheets are the evidence, which is one good reason to keep yours properly when you are being ground down in a long endgame. No scoresheet, no claim.

Fifty is more than enough

Beginners worry about this rule far more than they need to. With correct technique, the basic mates take:

King and queen against king: ten moves at most, from anywhere. See king and queen vs king.
King and rook against king: sixteen at most.
King and two bishops against king: under twenty.
King, bishop and knight against king: thirty-three at most, and it is the only one that feels tight.

So if you are running out of moves, the problem is the technique, not the rule. The other direction is worth knowing too: computer tablebases have turned up positions with a handful of pieces that need hundreds of accurate moves to win. Under Art. 9.3 they are drawn long before that. Nobody has ever met one over a board.

If you are the defender, the count is a real resource. Give up the pawns, get down to a bare king, start counting, and make the strong player prove he learned the endgames rather than just the openings. And if you are the one attacking, the automatic version of the rule is behind you as well: seventy-five moves and the arbiter ends it without anybody claiming.