En Passant
Every other capture in chess can wait. This one is on offer for exactly one move, and that is the only part of it worth memorising - so the board below takes it away while you watch.
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En passant is the one capture in chess with an expiry date.
A pawn making its two-square opening move can land right beside an enemy pawn, sailing past the square that pawn was guarding. En passant is the rule that says it does not get away with it - the enemy pawn may take it as if it had only moved one square, landing on the square it skipped.
The condition that catches everyone is not what the capture does. It is when you are allowed to do it: on your very next move, and never again.
So do it. Black has just pushed the d-pawn two squares, straight past your pawn on e5.
Black has just played d7-d5, sailing past your pawn. Take it.
The pawn you took was never on d6. That is what makes this capture strange to look at: it is the only one in chess where the taking piece does not finish on the square of the piece it took.
The two conditions
Both have to hold, and the second one is the whole rule:
| condition | what it means |
|---|---|
| the enemy pawn moved two squares | a pawn that walked up one square at a time has skipped nothing, so there is nothing to capture behind it |
| you take immediately | on your very next move. Play anything else first and the right is gone for the rest of the game |
Here is the same position, one move later. Nothing has moved - but the moment has. Try the capture again, then find the move that is still available.
The same men, one move later. Try e5xd6 again - then play the move that is still there.
That refusal is the reason this page exists. Every other capture in chess is still there next move. This one is not, and no amount of re-reading the rule teaches that as well as having it taken away from you.
Where the capturing pawn lands
The landing square is the second thing people get wrong, and it follows from the phrase itself: you take the pawn in passing, so you take it where it was passing through.
- A white pawn on e5, when Black plays d7-d5, captures onto d6.
- A black pawn on f4, when White plays g2-g4, captures onto g3.
Write it down and the pattern is obvious: the capturing pawn moves one square diagonally forward, exactly as it would for any other capture. The only odd part is that the square it lands on is empty at the time.
Why the rule exists at all
En passant looks like an exception bolted on for no reason. It is the opposite: it is a patch.
For most of the game's history a pawn moved one square, always. Somewhere in the 15th century Europe sped the opening up by letting a pawn take two squares on its first move - and that immediately broke something. A pawn on the fifth rank guards two squares in front of it; under the new rule an enemy pawn could hop straight over that guard in a single bound and become unstoppable.
En passant restores what the two-square move took away. It says: you may move two squares, but you cannot use it to sneak past a pawn that was already watching. The two rules arrived together, and they only make sense together.
It is never compulsory
One myth worth killing: en passant is not forced. It is an option, like every other capture, and there are real positions where taking is the losing move - opening a file towards your own king, say, or handing your opponent a passed pawn.
There is exactly one sense in which it behaves unlike other options: you cannot keep it in your pocket. Take it now or never.
When the board says no
The board above refuses a wrong try with the reason rather than a red flash, because the reasons are the rule. These are the four you will meet:
| what you tried | what you hear |
|---|---|
| capturing onto the enemy pawn's own square | the capture lands on the square it skipped, not the one it sits on |
| capturing after playing something else first | too late - the right expired one move ago |
| capturing a pawn that walked up one square at a time | it skipped nothing, so there is nothing behind it to take |
| capturing when it exposes your own king | still illegal, like any other move that does that - en passant is not a loophole |
Try it
Now you are Black, playing up the board. White has just pushed g2-g4 past your pawn on f4. Take it.
Common questions
- What is en passant in chess?
- A pawn capture with one extra condition. When a pawn makes its two-square opening move and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had only moved one square - taking it on the square it skipped over. The chance lasts for exactly one move: play anything else and it is gone for good.
- Is en passant forced?
- No. It is an ordinary option like any other capture, and there are positions where taking is the losing move. What makes it unusual is not that it is compulsory but that it expires: you either take it immediately or you never take it.
- Can you capture en passant a pawn that moved only one square?
- No, and this is the condition people get wrong. The rule exists to answer the two-square move specifically. A pawn that walked forward one square at a time has never skipped anything, so there is no square behind it to capture on.
- Where does the capturing pawn land?
- On the square the enemy pawn passed over, not on the square it is standing on. So a white pawn on e5 taking a black pawn that just went d7-d5 ends up on d6, and the black pawn is removed from d5. It is the only capture in chess where the taking piece does not finish on the square of the piece it took.
- Why is it called en passant?
- It is French for "in passing": you catch the pawn as it goes by. The name survives because the rule was added to European chess in the 15th century at the same time as the two-square pawn move, and the French term for it stuck in English the way many chess words did.
- Is en passant a real rule?
- Yes - it is in the FIDE laws of chess and has been standard for centuries, which is why it applies in every rated game, on every online board and in every tournament. It is only obscure because it comes up rarely: a whole game can pass without a single opportunity for it.
