[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
Rules of Chess: En passant capture FAQ. Answers to some questions about the en passant capture rule.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andrew Smith wrote on Wed, Dec 4, 2002 12:14 PM UTC:uh... just a little question... and i know it doesn't matter as far as this example is concerned... but isn't the bottom left corner on the chess board supposed to be a white square? and the white queen on the right? the board is backwards in the examples here... or am i wrong?
sorry, you have it backwards, the diagrams are correct. the bottom *right*-hand corner square is always white for both players. the queens are always placed on squares of their own color, this means that the queen is on the left if you are white and on the right if you are black.
~e wrote on Fri, Jun 6, 2003 01:02 AM UTC:I don't see any diagrams to go with this, so I'm wondering what other users are commenting on...
This is very useful as I wasn't familiar with the En passant rule before, but could you add a third diagram showing the position of the pawn after capture just for clarification? Thanks.
Anonymous wrote on Sat, Jan 24, 2004 03:28 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★Anonymous wrote on Mon, Feb 16, 2004 08:42 PM UTC:Good ★★★★The pawn capturing actually moves diagonally, as it would have had it captured the captured pawn if it only moved once. Okay, that may have been confusing, so picture this: A black pawn sits on d4, and white advances a pawn from c2 to c4. Black captures by pretending the white pawn only moved once, so the pawn would move diagonally to c3, and then take the white pawn on c4 off of the board. (Note: white always starts on the first and second files and black always starts on the eighth and seventh files).
someone said that en passant cannot be used when there is a piece in front of the attacking pawn...true?
No, it's not true. After a Pawn has made its double move, En passant lets you capture it as though it had moved only one space. If a piece was in front of your Pawn, and your opponent moved his Pawn one space to a space attacked by your Pawn, your Pawn could capture it. So, if your opponent moved the same Pawn two spaces, you could capture it by en passant.
The diagrams should be replaced by single image diagrams, because the current diagrams are wrapping the ranks in this browser (Mozilla).
Robert wrote on Tue, Jun 15, 2004 02:51 PM UTC:If a pawn moves two spaces on its first move and stops next to the pawn of the other side's to defend another one of your own pieces or just to stop the progress of your opponent attack, is en passent still legal?
I was told that only pawns that stay in its initial file can capture en passant. For example, if white's e pawn captures and moves onto d file at d5 then if black moved c5, white would be unable to capture that pawn en passant with his previously e pawn.
Anonymous wrote on Sat, Aug 7, 2004 01:31 PM UTC:Good ★★★★a pity it is not printer friendly--i.e. half of rt hand side chopped off
Chip wrote on Wed, Nov 3, 2004 01:53 PM UTC:Good ★★★★Nicely done. Only remaining question, what is the proper chess notation to show capture via en passant?
You write PxP e. p. in the old descriptive notation. But in the modern algebraic notation (see game below) no 'e. p.' is added. On move 12 the White Pawn on c4 captured the Black Pawn on d5 and then a Black Pawn moved from c7 to c5. On move 13 the White Pawn, now on d5, captured that Black Pawn en passant, by moving it back to c6 and then taking it. The brief notation '13. dxc6' is all that is required to describe the move. To answer Gabe's question, this game shows that there are no special restrictions on en passant capture. And to answer david's question, any Pawn capture is a diagonal move which cannot be affected by a piece orthogonally in front of the attacking Pawn. Unless some other rule happened to apply, such as the case when that piece pins the Pawn against its own King.
<p>Tigran Petrosian - Mikhail Botvinnik,
<p>13th game of the World Championship Match (Moscow 1963)
<p>1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 Ne4 8. Nxe4
Bxe4 9. d5 Bf6 10. Ne1 Bxg2 11. Nxg2 exd5 12. cxd5 c5 13. dxc6 dxc6 14. Qc2 c5
15. Rd1 Qe8 16. Bf4 Nc6 17. Bd6 Be7 18. e3 Rd8 19. Bxe7 Qxe7 20. Nf4 g6 21. Qa4
Ne5 22. Rxd8 Rxd8 23. Rd1 c4 24. e4 b5 25. Rxd8+ Qxd8 26. Qxb5 Qd1+ 27. Kg2
Qf3+ 28. Kg1 Qd1+ 29. Kg2 Qf3+ 30. Kg1 Qxe4 31. Qd5 Qxd5 32. Nxd5 Nd3 33. b4
cxb3 34. axb3 f5 35. b4 Kf7 36. b5 Ne5 37. b6 a5 38. Kf1 Ke6 39. b7 Nc6 40.
Nc7+ Kd6 41. Na6 a4 42. Ke2 a3 43. Nb4 Nb8 44. Kd3 Kc7 45. Kc2 Kxb7 46. Kb3 Kb6
47. Kxa3 Kc5 48. Kb3 Kd4 49. Kc2 Ke4 50. Kd2 Kf3 51. Ke1 Kg2 52. h4 Kf3 53. Nd3
Nd7 54. Kf1 1/2-1/2
Erik Hermansen wrote on Wed, Jan 12, 2005 10:27 PM UTC:Good ★★★★I have another en passant question and I apologize if it is silly--I'm no chess expert. May a pawn making an en passant capture of another pawn also capture a piece that is in the square it is moving to? So for example: 1. black knight jumps in front of an unmoved black pawn. 2. white makes some move 3. black pawn behind the knight moves forward two squares. 4. white pawn takes the knight behind the black pawn. I'm pretty sure this is a valid move, and the knight would be captured. But would the black pawn also be captured 'en passant'? -Erik
Move 3 in your sequence isn't valid. A pawn cannot leap over another piece.
Doug... that is the point of this guide, the pawn 'leaping' over another piece is en passant.
Erik Hermansen is describing an impossible move with '3. black pawn behind the knight moves forward two squares.' Pawns never leap. Sometimes a Pawn slides through two empty squares on its first move.
first put the board right, even small image is better than split board
Hans, you might be able to stop the ranks from breaking up by enclosing each rank with NOBR tags in the code generated by the JavaScript.
I was always unsure of the details of this move. Thanks for creating such an informaive item.
I had it wrong and the last FAQ set me straight. Thanks.
game displays helpful. explanations difficult and no explanation as to reasons or advantages /disadvantages of this move.
The move is very well esplained here. I have been playing chess for many years and only until now have I totally understood the mechanics of this move. Thank you very much for this.
Thank you, Sir! Perhaps I Fortune will extend the opportunity to further in the future my wit of Chess through your gentlemanly and knowledgeable studies and explanations. I hope so. Blessings to you, Dear Man.
I had it wrong also. Untill I read the last comment my understanding of en passant was ; at any time if the pawn ducked an attack was sufficient grounds for en passant
This is the clearest explanation of the En Passant rule I have come across. Being very new to chess myself and trying to teach(!) my interested daughter of 6yrs, it was absolutely invaluable. Everything else I've read was greek to me, or perhaps gobbledegook, I couldn't tell. Thank you.
Excellent explanation and pictures. In response to the comment saying there were no explanations as to why this would be a good move strategically, I have to disagree. The advantages are obvious... you take their pawn. If that isn't enough for some players, that may explain why the rule is so obscure. Thanks for the tip.
Nice :)
Lisa wrote on Sun, Aug 27, 2006 03:47 PM UTC:Good ★★★★at last a decent explanation of the en passant capture! My 11 yr old step son didn't believe me when I told him about it and I have spent an hour searching the web for a family friendly explanation to show him!
If 1. PE4 1. PE6 2. PE5 2. PD5 Can I en passant with PE5. I have been told I cannot becuase PE6 is blocking the straight advancement of PE5. I disagree and think I can en passant but my playing partner says I cannot. Who is right.
1. e4 e6 2. e5 d5 3. exd6 (en passent) is legal in Chess; the presence of the pawn on e6 changes nothing.
- Sam
i noticed on your examples that the captured piece always has cover for
reprisal (the advancing piece can be captured). Can this move be used in
the latter stages of a game where the defence would be totally exposed?
Delighted to have found this move out (the hard way, ie. during play) and
i'm curious of other 'lesser' known rules.
Regards,
Cathal
I WANT TO ASK ABOUT THE SITUATION WHEN E2 MOVES TO E4 AND THERE IS A BLACK PAWN ON D3 , WHAT HAPPENS THEN ? I'LL BE THANKFULL FOR AN ANSWER . MY EMAIL : [email protected]
Ernie J wrote on Sun, Apr 8, 2007 12:03 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★question what does the term LIMITS and OPEN LINE mean
Can you redesign the page so it will print out completely rather than cut off the chess board illustrations.
E Mail: [email protected]
The question: 'Can other pieces except pawns capture en passant?' has been negated. But that is not quite exact. I will explain this: There had been a time in ancient chess, where pieces had been allowed to make only one single step. Thus chess had been a very slow game. Later in Italy chess has been modernized: the sliding of some pieces has been invented, an initial double step of pawns was introduced, and castlings were designed. But those moves have not been regarded each to be a continuous move, instead they had been interpreted as a serie of independent moves, by which chess could be sped up. This point of view leads by exception of the sliding moves (to avoid trouble when those pieces do capturings themselves) to the situation, that an opponent was allowed to answer by capturing also to any of the intermediately used target fields. Now only pawns are allowed to answer that way on pawns double step moves. And so it is clear, why that e.p move is merely allowed in the intermediate following move. But looking at castling moves you see, that a king still is not allowed to pass any square, where he would be in chess. That is nothing else, than that every enemy piece would be allowed to capture him via e.p..
Sid Montero wrote on Thu, Jan 31, 2008 01:23 PM UTC:EXCELLENT!!!
so what if you advance a pawn to a6 and the b7 pawn moves to b5, can you capture en passant? also i too would like an answer to the following previously posted question: I WANT TO ASK ABOUT THE SITUATION WHEN E2 MOVES TO E4 AND THERE IS A BLACK PAWN ON D3 , WHAT HAPPENS THEN ? I'LL BE THANKFULL FOR AN ANSWER . my email is: [email protected]
Joe Joyce wrote on Fri, Mar 7, 2008 03:59 AM UTC:The purpose of the en passant rule is to give neighboring pawns one chance to capture. It doesn't make any difference which pawn gets that one chance to capture. In both the cases you mentioned, the pawn that just moved [the one that just double-stepped] could have captured the pawn that had moved up to a diagonally adjacent position, a pawns' mutual capture position, on a previous turn. Since the opportunity to capture was there, then the pawn that you are asking about cannot capture by an en passant move. Note that in a legal en passant move, the pawn moves 1 square diagonally forward, its standard capture move, whereas your suggested move would have the pawn capture with an orthogonally sideways move, one the pawn cannot make. I hope this answers your question adequately.
A very easy to understand description of En Passant rule.. i had to visit several other pages to understand this rule but only here i understood how it works. Thanks
it helped me a lot
excellent ! finally I understand it . the idea being pawn cannot avoid capture by the option of two square move.?
Tom, yes, you are right. The reason for en passant is so the pawn cannot avoid capture with the 2-step move.
Suppose a black pawn has the opportunity to capture a white pawn en passant, but the player with black decides not to exercise the en passant option his next move. He has lost the chance to do it later in the game. But suppose later in the game that same black pawn has the opportunity to capture a different white pawn en passant. Can that same black pawn that opted not to capture en passant earlier in the game now legally capture a different white pawn en passant?
Description of pawn move does not use standard terminology. A pawn does not make a 'double-step' move, it moves 2 squares.
I came across this page because another page was trying to link to it with a bad link. While here, I noticed that it looked a mess with its Javascript graphics that used a separate image for each space. I replaced these with single images for each diagram, I edited the text, added new questions, and fixed the formatting so that the three cells in each table row will display vertically on mobile devices but still display horizontally on desktops.
I noticed the old diagram positions started from illegal positions. I fixed that by creating new diagrams that use legal positions.
One reason to format a page for mobile first is that browsers on old mobile devices cannot be updated as easily as browsers on desktops, leaving some mobile browsers without the functionality of the most up-to-date browers. So, if the default formatting is suitable from a mobile device, it will look right even if that browsers is not up-todate. With that in mind, I replaced the tables used to display three diagrams in a row with flexboxes that will display them in a row only on browsers with up-to-date flexbox capability and a wide-enough screen to display them in a row. On older browsers or on smaller devices, it will display them in a column.
56 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.