En passant

Submitted by colinh on Sat, 05/17/2008 at 1:50pm.

I have noticed that computers will not let you do the move, En passant. It is a very rare move an that is probably why you can not do it.

In the picture to the right, the pawn on e4 would move to d5 and take the pawn on e5.

» posted in Tactics

217 reads | 6 comments |

2 votes:

Comments:

by oyothman - 7 days ago
Cairo Egypt

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 2

This article is completely wrong, the En Passant move is:

by God2 - 49 days ago
Malaysia

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 1082

huh...ya.

by davidetal - 52 days ago
Tarragindi Australia

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 885

colinh - we are all of us learners when it comes to chess.

In the good ol days - I think in the 15th century - pawns could only move one square at a time. This meant that most openings consisted of lots of pawn moves, to get pawns to the 4th rank. To speed up the game, it was agreed that a pawn's first move could be either one or two squares. I don't know who came up with the rule but en passant is French for in passing, so maybe it was a Frenchwoman or man.

However, Houston, there was a problem. Players could by-pass opposing pawns and escape capture. This was not the purpose of the rule, which was only to speed the game up. That is why, when playing en passant, the pawn is treated as if it had only moved one square, and so can be taken on the square it 'jumped'.