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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

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.¹

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 of en passant

Black to move The black pawn is in its initial location. If it moves to f6 (×), the white pawn could capture it.

White to move Black moved his pawn forward two squares from f7 to f5, "passing" f6.

Black to move On the next move, White captures en passant, capturing the pawn as if it had moved to f6.

Example in opening

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 (Hooper & Whyld 1992:124-25).

Example from game

Gundersen-Faul, 1928

Position after 12... f7-f5.

Gundersen-Faul

After 14... g7-g5. White wins by taking the pawn en passant, which results in checkmate.

In this game ² 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.

See also

• Rules of chess
• Pawn (chess)

Notes

References

• Golombek, Harry (1977), Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess, Crown Publishing, p. 216, ISBN 0-517-53146-1 
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-866164-9 
• Just, Tim; Burg, Daniel B. (2003), U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (fifth ed.), McKay, ISBN 0-8129-3559-4 
• Schiller, Eric (2003), Official Rules of Chess (second ed.), Cardoza, ISBN 978-1-58042-092-1 
• Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Martins Press, ISBN 978-0709146971 

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• This page was last modified on 29 December 2008, at 15:37.

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