This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of Chess.

En passant (from French: "in [the pawn's] passing") is a move in the board game of chess. A board game is a Game in which counters or pieces that are placed on removed from or moved across a "board" (a premarked surface usually specific to that game Chess is a recreational and competitive Game played between two players. 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 as if it had only moved one square forward. The pawn (♙♟ is the weakest and most numerous piece in the Game of Chess, representing Infantry 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 is the opportunity to make an en passant capture in one position but not the other. In Chess, a draw is one of the possible outcomes of a game the others being a win for white and a win for black In Chess and some other Abstract strategy games, the threefold repetition rule (also known as repetition of position) states that a player can claim a

In either algebraic or descriptive chess notation, en passant captures are sometimes denoted by "e. Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of Chess. Descriptive chess notation, or just descriptive notation is a notation for recording Chess games and at one time was the most popular notation in Britain 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. Petrov's Defence, sometimes called Petroff's Defense or the Russian Game, is a Chess opening characterized by the following moves 1

• 1. e4 e5
• 2. Nf3 Nf6
• 3. d4 exd4
• 4. e5 Ne4
• 5. Qxd4 d5 (diagram)
• 6. exd6 (Hooper & Whyld 1992:124-25). Illustration Example in opening In this line from the Petrov Defence, White can capture the pawn on d5 en passant on his sixth move

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 e6 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. Checkmate (frequently shortened to mate) is a situation in Chess (and in other Boardgames of the Chaturanga family in which one player's

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. The queen (♕♛ is the most powerful piece in the game of Chess. A bishop (♗♝ is a piece in the Board game of Chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops Because of their separation from European chess prior to that period, the Asian chess variants do not feature any of these moves. A chess variant is a Game derived from related to or similar to Chess in at least one respect

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. Harry Golombek OBE ( March 1[[ 911]]– January 7 1995) was a British Chess International Master and honorary grandmaster 216, ISBN 0-517-53146-1 
• Hooper, David & Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed. David Vincent Hooper ( 31 August 1915 - May 1998 born in Reigate, was a British Chess player and writer Kenneth Whyld ( March 6, 1926 - July 11, 2003) was a British Chess author and researcher best known as the co-author (with The Oxford Companion to Chess is a reference Book on Chess written by David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. ), 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. Eric Schiller (born March 20, 1955 in New York) is an American Chess player trainer arbiter and author ), Cardoza, ISBN 978-1-58042-092-1 
• Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Patricia Anne Sunnucks (born 21 February 1927) is an author and the several time British Women's Chess Champion (1957 1958 1964 Martins Press, ISBN 978-0709146971