En passant

"En passant" "(from French: "in passing")" is a move in the board game of chess. "En passant" is a special capture made immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an opposing pawn could have captured it if it had only moved one square forward. In this situation, the opposing pawn may, on the immediately subsequent move, capture the pawn as if taking it "as it passes" through the first square; the resulting position would then be the same as if the pawn had only moved one square forward and the opposing pawn had captured normally. The "En passant" capture must be done on the very next turn, or the right to do so is lost. [ http://www.fide.com/info/handbook?id=124&view=article FIDE rules ("En Passant" is rule 3.7, part d)]

Such a move is the only occasion in chess in which a piece captures but does not move to the square of the captured piece. When claiming a draw by threefold repetition, two positions whose pieces are all on the same squares, with the same player to move, are considered different if there was an opportunity to make an "en passant" capture in the first position, because that opportunity by definition no longer exists the second time the same configuration of pieces occurs.

In either algebraic or descriptive chess notation, "en passant" captures are sometimes denoted by "e.p." or similar, but such notation is not required. In algebraic notation, the move is written as if the captured pawn just advanced only one square, "e.g", exf6 (or exf6 e.p.) in the illustration below.

Illustration

Example in opening

Chess diagram|=
tright|
=
rd|nd|bd|qd|kd|bd| |rd|=
pd|pd|pd|xo| |pd|pd|pd|=
| | |xx| | | | |=
| | |pd|pl| | | |=
| | |ql|nd| | | |=
| | | | |nl| | |=
pl|pl|pl| | |pl|pl|pl|=
rl|nl|bl| |kl|bl| |rl|=
Petrov line, after 5... d7-d5, the white pawn on e5 may capture "en passant".In this line from the Petrov Defence, White can capture the pawn on d5 "en passant" on his sixth move.
* 1. e4 e5
* 2. Nf3 Nf6
* 3. d4 exd4
* 4. e5 Ne4
* 5. Qxd4 d5 (diagram)
* 6. exd6 harvcol|Hooper|Whyld|1992|pp=124-25.

Example from game

Chess diagram|=
tleft
Gundersen-Faul, 1928
=
rd| |bd|qd| |rd| | |=
pd|pd| | | | |pd| |=
| | | |pd| |kd| |=
| | |pd|pl|pd|nl| |=
|bd| |nd| | |ql|pl|=
| |nl| | | | | |=
pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=
rl| |bl| |kl| | |rl|=
Position after 12... f7-f5.Chess diagram|=
tleft
Gundersen-Faul
=
rd| |bd|qd| |rd| | |=
pd|pd| | | | | | |=
| | | |nl| | |kd|=
| | |pd|pl|pd|pd|pl|=
|bd| |nd| | |ql| |=
| |nl| | | | | |=
pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=
rl| |bl| |kl| | |rl|=
After 14... g7-g5. White wins by taking the pawn en passant, which results in checkmate.In this game [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1242924 Gundersen-Faul] between Gunnar Gundersen and A. H. Faul, Black has just moved his pawn from f7 to f5. The white pawn on e5 could capture the f-pawn "en passant", but White had a different idea:
*13. h5+ Kh6
*14. Nxe6+ g5
*15. hxg6 e.p. #Capturing the g-pawn "en passant" resulted in checkmate.

Historical context

Historically, allowing "en passant" is one of the last major rule changes in European chess that occurred in the 14th to 15th century, together with the introduction of the two-square first move for pawns, castling, and the unlimited range for queens and bishops. Because of their separation from European chess prior to that period, the Asian chess variants do not feature any of these moves.

The motivation for "en passant" was to prevent the newly-added two-square first move for pawns from allowing them to evade capture by an enemy pawn. Specifically, it should still allow pawns on the player's fifth rank the opportunity to capture a pawn on an adjacent file which advances two squares from its starting square.

ee also

* Rules of chess
* Pawn (chess)

Notes

References

* citation
last=Golombek | first=Harry |author-link=Harry Golombek
year=1977
title=Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess
publisher=Crown Publishing
isbn=0-517-53146-1 | page=216
* Citation
surname1=Hooper|given1=David|authorlink1=David Vincent Hooper
surname2=Whyld|given2=Kenneth|authorlink2=Kenneth Whyld
title=The Oxford Companion to Chess
year=1992
edition=second
publisher=Oxford University Press
ID=ISBN 0-19-866164-9
*Citation
surname1=Just|given1=Tim
surname2=Burg|given2=Daniel B.
year=2003
title=U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess
edition=fifth
publisher=McKay
ID=ISBN 0-8129-3559-4
*Citation
surname1=Schiller|given1=Eric|authorlink1=Eric Schiller
year=2003
title=Official Rules of Chess
edition=second
publisher=Cardoza
ID=ISBN 978-1-58042-092-1
* citation
last=Sunnucks | first=Anne |authorlink=Anne Sunnucks
year=1970
title=The Encyclopaedia of Chess
publisher=St. Martins Press
ISBN=978-0709146971