diff --git a/pandas/computation/expr.py b/pandas/computation/expr.py
index b6a1fcbec8339..73ccd11e966d9 100644
--- a/pandas/computation/expr.py
+++ b/pandas/computation/expr.py
@@ -589,6 +589,7 @@ def visitor(x, y):
 
 _python_not_supported = frozenset(['Dict', 'Call', 'BoolOp', 'In', 'NotIn'])
 _numexpr_supported_calls = frozenset(_reductions + _mathops)
+_query_not_supported = frozenset(['Assign'])
 
 
 @disallow((_unsupported_nodes | _python_not_supported) -
@@ -602,6 +603,17 @@ def __init__(self, env, engine, parser,
         super(PandasExprVisitor, self).__init__(env, engine, parser, preparser)
 
 
+@disallow((_unsupported_nodes | _python_not_supported | _query_not_supported) -
+          (_boolop_nodes | frozenset(['BoolOp', 'Attribute', 'In', 'NotIn',
+                                      'Tuple'])))
+class PandasQueryExprVisitor(BaseExprVisitor):
+
+    def __init__(self, env, engine, parser,
+                 preparser=partial(_preparse, f=compose(_replace_locals,
+                                                        _replace_booleans))):
+        super(PandasQueryExprVisitor, self).__init__(env, engine, parser, preparser)
+
+
 @disallow(_unsupported_nodes | _python_not_supported | frozenset(['Not']))
 class PythonExprVisitor(BaseExprVisitor):
 
@@ -659,4 +671,5 @@ def names(self):
         return frozenset(term.name for term in com.flatten(self.terms))
 
 
-_parsers = {'python': PythonExprVisitor, 'pandas': PandasExprVisitor}
+_parsers = {'python': PythonExprVisitor, 'pandas': PandasExprVisitor,
+            'pandas_query': PandasQueryExprVisitor}
diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index bb192aeca5b6d..163a78d0a28a8 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -1935,6 +1935,7 @@ def query(self, expr, **kwargs):
         >>> df[df.a > df.b]  # same result as the previous expression
         """
         kwargs['level'] = kwargs.pop('level', 0) + 1
+        kwargs['parser'] = kwargs.pop('parser', 'pandas_query')
         res = self.eval(expr, **kwargs)
 
         try:
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
index cfa0ed1a11772..eda6d833f2b64 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
@@ -15210,7 +15210,7 @@ class TestDataFrameQueryPythonPandas(TestDataFrameQueryNumExprPandas):
     def setUpClass(cls):
         super(TestDataFrameQueryPythonPandas, cls).setUpClass()
         cls.engine = 'python'
-        cls.parser = 'pandas'
+        cls.parser = 'pandas_query'
         cls.frame = _frame.copy()
 
     def test_query_builtin(self):
@@ -15225,6 +15225,16 @@ def test_query_builtin(self):
         result = df.query('sin > 5', engine=engine, parser=parser)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(expected, result)
 
+    def test_query_with_assign_statement(self):
+        df = DataFrame({'a': [1, 2, 3], 'b': ['a', 'b', 'c']})
+        a_before = df['a'].copy()
+        self.assertRaisesRegexp(
+            NotImplementedError, "'Assign' nodes are not implemented",
+            df.query, 'a=1', engine=self.engine, parser=self.parser
+        )
+        a_after = df['a'].copy()
+        assert_series_equal(a_before, a_after)
+
 
 class TestDataFrameQueryPythonPython(TestDataFrameQueryNumExprPython):