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I had it wrong also. Untill I read the last comment my understanding of en passant was ; at any time if the pawn ducked an attack was sufficient grounds for en passant
This is the clearest explanation of the En Passant rule I have come across. Being very new to chess myself and trying to teach(!) my interested daughter of 6yrs, it was absolutely invaluable. Everything else I've read was greek to me, or perhaps gobbledegook, I couldn't tell. Thank you.
Excellent explanation and pictures. In response to the comment saying there were no explanations as to why this would be a good move strategically, I have to disagree. The advantages are obvious... you take their pawn. If that isn't enough for some players, that may explain why the rule is so obscure. Thanks for the tip.
Nice :)

at last a decent explanation of the en passant capture! My 11 yr old step son didn't believe me when I told him about it and I have spent an hour searching the web for a family friendly explanation to show him!
If 1. PE4 1. PE6 2. PE5 2. PD5 Can I en passant with PE5. I have been told I cannot becuase PE6 is blocking the straight advancement of PE5. I disagree and think I can en passant but my playing partner says I cannot. Who is right.
1. e4 e6 2. e5 d5 3. exd6 (en passent) is legal in Chess; the presence of the pawn on e6 changes nothing.
- Sam
i noticed on your examples that the captured piece always has cover for
reprisal (the advancing piece can be captured). Can this move be used in
the latter stages of a game where the defence would be totally exposed?
Delighted to have found this move out (the hard way, ie. during play) and
i'm curious of other 'lesser' known rules.
Regards,
Cathal
I WANT TO ASK ABOUT THE SITUATION WHEN E2 MOVES TO E4 AND THERE IS A BLACK PAWN ON D3 , WHAT HAPPENS THEN ? I'LL BE THANKFULL FOR AN ANSWER . MY EMAIL : JBA3@BEZEQINT.NET

question what does the term LIMITS and OPEN LINE mean
Can you redesign the page so it will print out completely rather than cut off the chess board illustrations.
E Mail: bobl@efn.org
The question: 'Can other pieces except pawns capture en passant?' has been negated. But that is not quite exact. I will explain this: There had been a time in ancient chess, where pieces had been allowed to make only one single step. Thus chess had been a very slow game. Later in Italy chess has been modernized: the sliding of some pieces has been invented, an initial double step of pawns was introduced, and castlings were designed. But those moves have not been regarded each to be a continuous move, instead they had been interpreted as a serie of independent moves, by which chess could be sped up. This point of view leads by exception of the sliding moves (to avoid trouble when those pieces do capturings themselves) to the situation, that an opponent was allowed to answer by capturing also to any of the intermediately used target fields. Now only pawns are allowed to answer that way on pawns double step moves. And so it is clear, why that e.p move is merely allowed in the intermediate following move. But looking at castling moves you see, that a king still is not allowed to pass any square, where he would be in chess. That is nothing else, than that every enemy piece would be allowed to capture him via e.p..

EXCELLENT!!!
so what if you advance a pawn to a6 and the b7 pawn moves to b5, can you capture en passant? also i too would like an answer to the following previously posted question: I WANT TO ASK ABOUT THE SITUATION WHEN E2 MOVES TO E4 AND THERE IS A BLACK PAWN ON D3 , WHAT HAPPENS THEN ? I'LL BE THANKFULL FOR AN ANSWER . my email is: kopack@comcast.net

The purpose of the en passant rule is to give neighboring pawns one chance to capture. It doesn't make any difference which pawn gets that one chance to capture. In both the cases you mentioned, the pawn that just moved [the one that just double-stepped] could have captured the pawn that had moved up to a diagonally adjacent position, a pawns' mutual capture position, on a previous turn. Since the opportunity to capture was there, then the pawn that you are asking about cannot capture by an en passant move. Note that in a legal en passant move, the pawn moves 1 square diagonally forward, its standard capture move, whereas your suggested move would have the pawn capture with an orthogonally sideways move, one the pawn cannot make. I hope this answers your question adequately.
A very easy to understand description of En Passant rule.. i had to visit several other pages to understand this rule but only here i understood how it works. Thanks
it helped me a lot
excellent ! finally I understand it . the idea being pawn cannot avoid capture by the option of two square move.?
Tom, yes, you are right. The reason for en passant is so the pawn cannot avoid capture with the 2-step move.
Suppose a black pawn has the opportunity to capture a white pawn en passant, but the player with black decides not to exercise the en passant option his next move. He has lost the chance to do it later in the game. But suppose later in the game that same black pawn has the opportunity to capture a different white pawn en passant. Can that same black pawn that opted not to capture en passant earlier in the game now legally capture a different white pawn en passant?
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