Teach Me En Passant

When a pawn makes its first move and jumps two squares forward, it can be captured by an enemy pawn as if it had only moved one square. This special move is called en passant, and it's a unique chance to get a pawn that might have otherwise escaped.

Think of it like this: The two-square move is a bit of a trick. The pawn tries to get to safety quickly, but the opponent's pawn sees right through it and captures it "in the air" as it passes by. The capture must happen immediately on the very next turn, or the opportunity is gone forever.

Perhaprs understanding the reason of the rule will make you understand the play itself.

Imagine this position on the board

https://lichess.org/editor/8/1p1p4/2p5/2P5/8/7K/5B2/7k_b_-_-_0_1?color=white

Black to play.

As you can see, black only can move pawns. If they move forward 1 square, they get captured, and eventually the white pawn will promote to a queen. So moving a square forward is not an option. So it moves forward twice to avoid the capture.

But there have been situations when white was winning up to that point, and by moving the pawn forward twice, avoiding the capture removes the advantage and loses because he cant reach in time to avoid black promoting. Its not fair for the attacking player.

So, if you allow a player to avoid the capture by moving the pawn 2 steps, there is no reason to have a forward pawn yourself, as it puts you on a possible disadvantage. Players can literally ignore your pawns, they cant keep advancing forward as there is a wall in front of them, and if they get to the 5th rank (as white, or 4th rank as black), the pawns next to them can just avoid the influence your pawns have on the 6th rank.

This removes the incentive for attacking and restricting your opponents movements, as a pawn movement to the 5th rank does not pose any threat, you just jump over it.

So, to incentivize attack, and/or punishing passive play, the rule was created. A player might move the pawn 2 squares to avoid capture, but in the immediate move after, the opposing player might treat the movement as if it only moved once. that only works in the immediate move after, if you dont capture immediately after, you relinquish your right to capture that pawn and you cannot do it later.

So given the position with black to move, they can move b5 or d5, "avoiding" the capture.
So, the immediate next move, white can do cxb6 or cxd6 (depending of which move they made) as if they only moved the pawn 1 square forward.

So, thats it. If a player moves the pawn forward 2 steps to avoid a capture with your pawn, you have the option to capture it as if it moved 1 step, capture is only possible in the immediate move after.

You will be tempted to grab enpassant whenever you can, but remember it is not forced. Some people will disagree ;)

@Geelse_zot said in #13:

, but remember it is not forced.

Unless it is the only legal move, of course. ;-)

(And in fact, I have seen someone complain that they couldn't move, when e.p. was indeed their only available move.)

@nadjarostowa said in #14:

(And in fact, I have seen someone complain that they couldn't move, when e.p. was indeed their only available move.)
A nice reminder that "position" in chess is defined not only by where the pieces are but also who is to move and what is the set of legal moves (considering castling rights and en passant capture). It is defined that way e.g. in the threefold repetition rule.

@TALENTEDmASTER : I am a professional Chess Instructor (online).
I have explained the Rules governing the en passant move/capture
in a video lesson. You can find the video lesson (no.5 The En passant
Capture) in video lesson section in my website: 64worlds.com.
https://sites.google.com/view/shankar64worlds/video-lessons?authuser=0
Trust it will be helpful.

-T R Shankar
thirushankar1108@gmail.com

@mkubecek said in #15:

A nice reminder that "position" in chess is defined not only by where the pieces are but also who is to move and what is the set of legal moves (considering castling rights and en passant capture). It is defined that way e.g. in the threefold repetition rule.

Reminds me of this checkmate in 1 puzzle

En passant was introduced along with the rule that pawns can initially move two spaces. If an opponent's pawn advances two fields and lands next to your pawn, you can execute en passant. The pawns must be on the same file (4 black; 5 white (your pieces)). You only have one chance to capture the pawn. You cannot capture it on subsequent moves. You capture the pawn as if it had only moved one space instead of two. Then you take away the opponent's pawn.

@Panagrellus said in #8:

Learn the e.p. rule from GM Gustaffson and watch GM Svidler crack up when there's glitch in the matrix, allowing e.p. when it should no longer be allowed..

Lols this video always cracked me up! :)))))

For some reason I often forget about it when playing on-line but never would OTB :)