En Passant
French for "in passing"
En passant is a special pawn capture, and the rule most new players have never heard of. When a pawn rushes two squares forward and lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square.
How it works
eeThe three conditions
- Your pawn stands on its fifth rank: the fifth rank for a white pawn, the fourth for a black one. That is the only place an enemy pawn can land beside it with a two-square step.
- The enemy pawn has just moved two squares forward from its starting square, and landed on the square right next to yours.
- You capture straight away, on your very next move. Play anything else and the chance is gone for good.
A pawn that arrives beside yours one square at a time cannot be taken en passant. Only a pawn can capture en passant, and only a pawn can be captured that way. Like every capture in chess, it is a choice, not a duty, unless it happens to be the only legal move you have.
It works the same way for Black: a black pawn on the fourth rank may capture a white pawn that has just moved two squares to land beside it.
Why the rule exists
Pawns once moved only one square at a time. When they were given a two-square first move, centuries ago, to speed the game up, en passant came with it, so that a pawn could not use the double step to slip past an enemy pawn that could have captured it after a single step.
How it is written
In chess notation the capture above is written exd6, sometimes with "e.p." after it. On La Reina's board the en passant square is shown like any other move for your pawn, so you only have to tap it.
La Reina's School · Unit 4: The special rules · Free Lesson: En passant Catching a pawn that rushed past. Learn it on the board with La Reina: open the game and tap La Reina's School.