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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?

Ben Good wrote on Wed, Dec 4, 2002 03:33 PM UTC:
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...

Oper2 wrote on Fri, Jan 9, 2004 11:40 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
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).

david wrote on Sat, May 29, 2004 06:28 PM UTC:
someone said that en passant cannot be used when there is a piece in front of the attacking pawn...true?

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, May 29, 2004 10:14 PM UTC:
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.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, May 30, 2004 01:36 AM UTC:Poor ★
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?

Gabe wrote on Fri, Jul 2, 2004 10:02 PM UTC:
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?

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Nov 3, 2004 08:19 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
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

Doug Chatham wrote on Thu, Jan 13, 2005 02:32 AM UTC:
Move 3 in your sequence isn't valid. A pawn cannot leap over another piece.

Anonymous wrote on Sat, Mar 26, 2005 11:32 AM UTC:
Doug... that is the point of this guide, the pawn 'leaping' over another piece is en passant.

David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Mar 29, 2005 12:42 AM UTC:
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.

Anonymous wrote on Mon, Apr 4, 2005 10:10 PM UTC:Poor ★
first put the board right, even small image is better than split board

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Apr 5, 2005 01:28 AM UTC:
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.

Sean Milton wrote on Wed, Aug 31, 2005 10:41 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I was always unsure of the details of this move. Thanks for creating such an informaive item.

Mike wrote on Tue, Oct 11, 2005 10:23 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I had it wrong and the last FAQ set me straight. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Dec 11, 2005 01:07 PM UTC:Poor ★
game displays helpful. explanations difficult and no explanation as to reasons or advantages /disadvantages of this move.

[email protected] wrote on Tue, Feb 21, 2006 04:30 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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.

[email protected] wrote on Thu, Apr 6, 2006 02:08 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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.

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