En passant#History

File:Ajedrez animación en passant.gif

The conditions for a pawn to capture an enemy pawn en passant are as follows:

• the enemy pawn advanced two squares on the previous turn;
• the capturing pawn attacks the square that the enemy pawn passed over.

If these conditions are met, the capturing pawn can move diagonally forward to the square that the enemy pawn passed, capturing the enemy pawn as if it had moved only one square. If the right to capture en passant is not exercised immediately, it is lost. Making the capture is optional, unless there is no other legal move.

Only pawns may capture or be captured en passant.{{cite book |last=Whyld |first=Kenneth |author-link=Ken Whyld |title=Learn Chess in a Weekend |year=1993 |publisher=Knopf/DK |page=39 |isbn=9780679422297}} The en passant capture is the only capturing move in chess where the capturing piece moves to a square not occupied by the captured piece.{{citation |last=Burgess |first=Graham |author-link = Graham Burgess |title=The Mammoth Book of Chess |location=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |year=2000 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-7867-0725-6 }}

{{rp|463}}

Because many casual players are unfamiliar with or misunderstand the en passant rule, administrators on internet chess sites frequently receive erroneous complaints of bugs, cheating or hacking.{{Cite web |last=Allebest |first=Erik |date=2018-06-20 |title='His Pawn Cheated And Killed My Pawn!' |url=https://www.chess.com/article/view/his-pawn-cheated-and-killed-my-pawn |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=Chess.com |language=en-US}}

In algebraic notation, an en passant capture is notated using the capturing pawn's destination square. In both algebraic and descriptive notation, the move may optionally be denoted by appending "e.p." or similar. For example, in algebraic notation, bxa3 or bxa3 e.p. may be used to represent a black pawn on b4 capturing a white pawn on a4 en passant.{{rp|216}}

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| Black just played 5...d7-d5. White's e5-pawn can capture en passant.

}}

Some chess openings feature the en passant capture. In the following line from Petrov's Defence, White captures the pawn on d5 en passant on move 6:

:1. e4 e5

:2. Nf3 Nf6

:3. d4 exd4

:4. e5 Ne4

:5. Qxd4 d5 (see diagram)

:6. exd6 e.p.{{rp|124–125}}

{{clear}}

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| Position after 3.exd6 e.p.

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An en passant capture can occur as early as move 3. For example, in the French Defence after 1.e4 e6 2.e5 d5, White can play 3.exd6 e.p. ({{em|diagram}}). This has occurred in play, for example in the game Steinitz–Fleissig, Vienna 1882.{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001589 |title=Steinitz vs. Fleissig, Vienna 1882 |website=Chessgames.com |access-date=2016-04-26 |archive-date=2016-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602115335/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1001589 |url-status=live }}

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{{Chess diagram

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| An example of overlooking
an en passant capture

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| Black to move. Here 1...g5+{{chesspunc|?}} loses to an en passant capture checkmate.

}}

In the diagram, the move 1...g5+ may seem to checkmate White, but it is in fact a blunder: White can (and in fact must) counter this check with the en passant capture 2.fxg6 e.p.{{chessAN|#}}, which cross-checks and checkmates Black. (Black can draw in the diagrammed position by playing 1...Qxf2+.)

{{clear}}

In a game between Gunnar Gundersen and Albert H. Faul,{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1242924 |title=Gundersen vs. Faul, Melbourne 1928 |website=Chessgames.com |access-date=2009-06-12 |archive-date=2010-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101209050750/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1242924 |url-status=live }} Black played 12...f7-f5. White could have captured the black f-pawn en passant with his e-pawn, but he instead played:

:13. h5+ Kh6 14. Nxe6+

The bishop on c1 effects a discovered check. 14...Kh7 results in 15.Qxg7#.

:14... g5 15. hxg6 e.p.#

The en passant capture places Black in double check and checkmate (in fact, White's bishop is not necessary for the mate). An en passant capture is the only way a double check can be delivered without one of the checking pieces moving, as in this case.

The largest known number of en passant captures in one game is three. This record is shared by three games; in none of them were all three captures by the same player. The earliest known example is a 1980 game between Alexandru Segal and Karl-Heinz Podzielny.{{rp|98–99}}{{cite web |url=http://www.365chess.com/search_result.php?wlname=Segal&wname=&open=&blname=Podzielny&bname=&eco=&yeari=&yeare=&sply=1&ply=&res=&submit_search=Search+Chess+Games |title=A. Segal vs. K. Podzielny, Dortmund 1980 |website=365Chess.com |access-date=2009-12-05 |archive-date=2021-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217173948/https://www.365chess.com/search_result.php?wlname=Segal&wname=&open=&blname=Podzielny&bname=&eco=&yeari=&yeare=&sply=1&ply=&res=&submit_search=Search+Chess+Games |url-status=live }}

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In early versions of chess, the pawn could not advance two squares on its first move. The two-square advance was introduced later, between the 13th and 16th centuries, to speed up games.{{Cite web |date=2021-06-03 |title=The Evolution of Modern Chess Rules: En Passant |url=https://new.uschess.org/news/evolution-modern-chess-rules-en-passant |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=US Chess.org |language=en}} The en passant capture may have been introduced at that time, or it may have come later; references to en passant captures appear in the books by the 16th-century Spanish chess master Ruy López de Segura.{{cite book

|last=Murray |first=H. J. R.|author-link=H. J. R. Murray

|year=2012

|orig-year=1913

|title=A History of Chess

|page=815

|publisher=Skyhorse

|isbn= 978-1-62087-062-4}}

The en passant capture was one of the last major additions to European chess.{{efn|Other relatively recent rule changes include the addition of castling, alterations to the abilities of the queen and bishop{{citation

| last=Davidson

| first=Henry

| year=1949

| title=A Short History of Chess

| publisher=McKay

| edition=1981 paperback

| isbn= 0-679-14550-8}}{{rp|14,16,57}} (Spanish master Ruy López de Segura gives the rule in his 1561 book Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez{{citation

| last=Golombek | first=Harry |author-link=Harry Golombek

| year=1977

| title=Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess

| contribution=en passant, capture

| publisher=Crown Publishing

| isbn=0-517-53146-1}}

{{rp|108}}), and alterations to promotion.}}{{rp|16}} In some parts of Europe, particularly in Italy, there was no such rule; this was known as passar battaglia. In 1880, Italy adopted the rules used by the rest of the world, including the en passant capture, in preparation for the 1881 Milan tournament.Hooper & Whyld (1996), pp. 124–25. en passant.{{rp|124–125}}

In the context of threefold and fivefold repetition, two positions are considered different if the opportunity to perform a given en passant capture exists in one position but not the other.{{Citation

|last=Schiller|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Schiller

|year=2003

|title=Official Rules of Chess

|edition=2nd

|publisher=Cardoza

|isbn= 978-1-58042-092-1 }}

{{rp|27}}

When a player is not in check, and capturing en passant is the only legal move, the player may not claim a draw by stalemate. In his book on chess organization and rules, International Arbiter Kenneth Harkness wrote that people frequently asked if this is the case.{{citation

| last=Harkness|first=Kenneth|author-link=Kenneth Harkness

| title=Official Chess Handbook

| year=1967

| publisher=McKay

| isbn= 1-114-15703-1}}

{{rp|49}} Chess players debated this point in the 19th century, with some arguing that the right to capture en passant is a "privilege" that one cannot be compelled to exercise. In his 1860 book Chess Praxis, Howard Staunton wrote that the en passant capture is mandatory in such a position; the rules of chess were amended to make this clear.{{cite web

| last=Winter

| first=Edward

| author-link=Edward Winter (chess historian)

| year=1999

| url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/stalemate.html

| title=Stalemate

| website=Chesshistory.com

| access-date=2009-06-12

| archive-date=2019-12-17

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217032457/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/stalemate.html

| url-status=live

}}{{rp|49}}

The en passant capture is often used as a theme in chess problems. According to Kenneth S. Howard, "En passant pawn captures frequently produce striking effects in the opening and closing of lines, both for white and black."{{citation |last=Howard |first=Kenneth S. |year=1961 |title=How to Solve Chess Problems |edition=2nd |publisher=Dover |isbn=978-0-486-20748-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TAr0VrN-G3MC&q=%22en+passant%22+chess&pg=PA106 |access-date=2009-11-30 |archive-date=2023-04-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406050809/https://books.google.com/books?id=TAr0VrN-G3MC&q=%22en+passant%22+chess&pg=PA106 |url-status=live }}{{rp|106}} By retrograde analysis convention, a pawn may be captured en passant only if it can be proven to have advanced two squares on the previous move.

{{Chess diagram

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| Kenneth S. Howard, 1938

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| White to play and mate in three

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In the diagrammed 1938 composition by Howard, the {{chessprobgloss|key}}

:1. d4{{chesspunc|!}}

introduces the threat 2.d5+ cxd5 3.Bxd5#. Black can capture the d4-pawn en passant in either of two ways:

:1... exd3 e.p.

shifting the e4-pawn from the e- to the d-file, preventing an en passant capture after White plays 2.f4. To stop the threat of 3.f5#, Black can advance 2...f5, but this allows White to play 3.exf6 e.p.# due to the decisive opening of the {{nowrap|e-file}}.

Or Black can play

:1... cxd3 e.p.

and now White exploits the newly opened a2–g8 diagonal with 2.Qa2+ d5 3.cxd6 e.p.#.

{{clear}}

{{Chess diagram

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| O. Sommerfeldt, 1902

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| White to play and mate in two

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The diagrammed composition by Sommerfeldt[http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary_12.htm Open chess diary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318004936/http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess2/diary_12.htm |date=2015-03-18 }} by Tim Krabbé – #234 shows the effect of pins on en passant captures.

The key

:1. d4!

threatens 2.Qf2#. The moves of the black e-pawn are restricted in an unusual manner. The en passant capture 1...exd3 e.p.+ is illegal (it exposes Black’s king to check), but

:1... e3+

is legal. This, however, removes the black king's access to e3, allowing

:2. d5#

{{clear}}

{{notelist|notes=}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

• {{cite book

|last1=Hooper

|first1=David

|authorlink1=David Vincent Hooper

|last2=Whyld

|first2=Kenneth

|authorlink2=Kenneth Whyld

|title=The Oxford Companion to Chess

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|year=1996

|edition=2nd

|orig-date=First pub. 1992

|isbn=0-19-280049-3 }}

• {{citation

|last1=Just|first1=Tim

|last2=Burg|first2=Daniel B.

|year=2003

|title=U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess

|edition=5th

|publisher=McKay

|isbn= 0-8129-3559-4 |ref=none}}

• {{citation

|last=Winter

|first=Edward

|authorlink=Edward Winter (chess historian)

|year=2006

|title=Chess Facts and Fables

|publisher=McFarland

|isbn=0-7864-2310-2 |ref=none}}

{{wiktionary}}

• [https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/enpassant.html En passant (Chess) by Edward Winter]
• [https://lichess.org/learn#/15 En passant Lichess lesson]

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