The en passant rule.
The words "en passant" are french for "on passing". A pawn captures another pawn while passing it.
In the diagrams below the white pawn is actually shown in yellow and the black pawn is shown in red. The black pawn is a b pawn because it is on the b file (actually on b5)
The white pawn on c2 may move forward one square to c3 or two squares to c4.
Diagram 2 shows the position after it has moved forward 1 square. The black pawn may now capture it.
Diagram 1 Diagram 2
In diagram 3 the black pawn has captured the white pawn which was on c3 and of course the black pawn now stands on c3. Since the black pawn was a b pawn we write bxc3
But the white pawn could have moved forward 2 squares on its first move. If it did this it would stand on c4, alongside the black pawn
Diagram 3 Diagram 4
Diagram 5 shows the white pawn standing alongside the black pawn.. Now the rule says that the black pawn may capture the white pawn as if it had only move forward 1 square. The pawn now stands on c3. This is the square that the white pawn would have stood on if it had moved forward 1 square.
The move is written bxc3. This is the same as we wrote when the black pawn captured the white pawn on c3
Diagram 5 Diagram 6
If a player wishes to capture a pawn en passant he must do so immediately. In the example we have looked at, if white played c4 (moving his pawn to c4) black would have to capture on his next move. If he made another move he could not capture that pawn en passant.
Black could capture a white pawn en passant if the black pawn stood on the 4th rank (a4,b4,c4 d4, e4 , f4 g4 or h4) and a white pawn moved forward 2 squares to stand on a square alongside the black pawn.
White could capture a black pawn en passant if the white pawn stood on the 5th rank (a5,b5,c5,d5,e5,f5,g5 or h5) and a black pawn moved forward 2 squares to stand on a square alongside.
If you have followed the plan you have now looked at all the rules of chess. Perhaps you might look at "Checkmating with the queen 1" or "Checkmating with 2 rooks."
