The motivation for en passant was to prevent the newly added two-square first move for pawns from allowing a pawn to evade capture by an enemy pawn. In most places the en passant rule was adopted at the same time as allowing the pawn to move two squares on its first move, but it was not universally accepted until the Italian rules were changed in 1880. Other relatively recent rule changes were castling, the unlimited range for queens and bishops (Spanish master Ruy López de Segura gives the rule in his 1561 book Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez.,) and a change to the rules on pawn promotion. Historical contextĪllowing the en passant capture, together with the introduction of the two-square first move for pawns, was one of the last major rule changes in European chess, and occurred between 12. This however removes the black king's access to e3, allowing 2. The black e-pawn is now simultaneously pinned and unpinned, as 1. the capture can only be made on the move immediately after the opposing pawn makes the double-step move otherwise the right to capture it en passant is lost.Īn example showing the effect en passant captures have on pins is this 1902 composition by Sommerfeldt:.the captured pawn must be on an adjacent file and must have just moved two squares in a single move (i.e.the capturing pawn must be on its fifth rank.It prevents a pawn from using the two-square advance to pass an adjacent enemy pawn without the risk of being captured.Ī pawn on its fifth rank may capture an enemy pawn on an adjacent file that has moved two squares in a single move, as if the pawn had moved only one square. The en passant capture rule was added in the 15th century when the rule that gave pawns an initial double-step move was introduced. En passant capture is a common theme in chess compositions. Like any other move, if an en passant capture is the only legal move available, it must be made. It is the only occasion in chess in which a piece is captured but is not replaced on its square by the capturing piece. The en passant capture must be made at the very next turn or the right to do so is lost. The resulting position is the same as if the pawn had moved only one square forward and the enemy pawn had captured it normally. The opponent captures the just-moved pawn 'as it passes' through the first square. Note that the capturing pawn must be on its fifth rank prior to executing this maneuver. It is a special pawn capture, that can only occur immediately after a pawn moves two ranks forward from its starting position and an enemy pawn could have captured it had the pawn moved only one square forward. En passant (from French: in passing) is a move in chess. Mark-Dev's report, and all of those games, are at. I have the rare distinction of having achieved this feat twice! IM and chess streamer Eric Rosen, who has surely played more games than I, says that he has also done it twice, which I guess makes us the unofficial joint world record-holders.Įric looks at 25(!) games with en passant checkmates, assembled for him by Mark-Dev, who wrote computer script to find such games from games played on lichess, at.

I think it's become more common in recent years since anyone can play thousands of games on the Internet. It's very rare, I think even rarer than mating by castling. These are games where a player effected checkmate by capturing a pawn en passant.

Chess pawn en passant