Capturing en passant

Hardly any rule causes as much surprise as capturing in passing. A pawn disappears although the capturing pawn does not land on its square. That is not a glitch of the board, it is one of the oldest rules of modern chess.

The rule

If a pawn advances two squares from its starting square and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square. The capturing pawn moves diagonally onto the skipped square, and the pawn that made the double step is removed from the board.

Three conditions have to come together:

• The captured pawn has just made a double step.
• The capturing pawn stands directly next to it, that is on the fifth rank from its own point of view.
• The capture is made immediately, on the very next move.

Whoever does not take the chance at once loses the right. It does not come back later.

An example

After 1. e4 e6 2. e5 d5 the white pawn stands on e5 and Black has just played d7-d5, running past the white pawn.

White plays exd6 e.p. The pawn moves to d6, the square the black pawn skipped, and the pawn on d5 disappears.

Why the rule exists

Originally every pawn moved one square at a time. In the late Middle Ages the double step from the starting square was added so that openings would get going faster. That created a gap: a pawn could use the double step to slip past an enemy pawn that would have captured it after a single step. Capturing en passant closes exactly that gap. The double step may speed things up, but it must not sneak past a guard.

Common misunderstandings

"I can still do that a move later." No. The right exists only on the move immediately following. Play something else and it is gone for good.

"Can I capture en passant with a knight?" No. Only a pawn can capture this way, and only a pawn can be captured this way.

"Do I have to capture en passant?" No, it is a move like any other, you may play it or leave it. Only when it is your sole legal move in the position do you have to play it.

"The pawn lands on an empty square, that cannot be a capture." It can. It is the only move in chess where the captured piece does not stand on the destination square.

Notation

The move is written like an ordinary pawn capture, so exd6. The suffix e.p. is allowed but not required, because the position is unambiguous anyway. In FEN notation the skipped square appears in the fourth field, d6 in the example above.

At chessmail

You do not have to do anything special. When the move is available, the board offers it like any other move, you simply drag the pawn diagonally onto the skipped square. The enemy pawn then disappears by itself.