Intercepted | Who won the game ?!

In chess, a pawn may be captured “in passing” — when a pawn advances two squares from its initial position, it may be captured by an adjacent pawn as if it had advanced only one square.

This can lead to a curious state of affairs:

From this position White plays 1. Bg2+ and declares checkmate. Black says “Au contraire,” plays 1. … d5, and announces checkmate himself. White shakes his head, plays 2. cxd6 e.p., and reasserts his own claim:

Black claims that this last move is absurd. He says the game ended when he advanced his pawn to d5. But White argues that the pawn never reached d5 — in principle it was captured on d6, and thus could not stop White’s original mate.

So who won the game?

Nice one!  Apparently I know even less about chess than I thought.  Can someone explain who won please?

Okay, I'm going with black.  It's my finest guesstimation based on the en passant rule not being a forced capture and even when the pawn is captured, white hasn't removed the check on his king.   

        The point above is surely the relevant one. White had to move out of check, but didn't. He therefore loses. You cannot respond to a check by ignoring it and giving check yourself.

But, this is the point of the white:

"White argues that the pawn never reached d5 — in principle it was captured on d6, and thus black could not stop White’s original mate."

in my opinion back won. We have to stick witht he move order.

 1 ..d5+ , so now white in under check.

onbiously white would take the pawn but this will be registered as move "2. "  and he cannot take it because under check.

White is wrong in saying the pawn never reached d5. If it did not reach d5 there would be no en passant. Black's turn is not finished until the pawn is on d5 so white can't claim it never passed d6. If white didn't take the pawn it would remain on d5. Therefore the pawn reached d5 and blocked white's check.

Rayyan this is really nice one, but I can tell you white simply has won the game due to the fact that if the white bishop has not reach g2 black will never mate the white king and in  this case black is under check so he cant push his pawn any more ,the conditiont of black to mate the white king only if the white bishop reached g2 and this is telling that white argue is true he won it.

I'd advise you look at it again, since it's pretty obvious that black is the winner.

Lets nto discuss what wodul happened if white or black did a different move. THe point its to understand who won witht the givence sequence of moves. The sequence is:

if it was not checkmate ( for example having a with pawn in g4), white could do 2.cxd6, but there are 3 things to consider:

• enpassant its not forced. So taking its not forced ( chess its not checkers )
• if an enpassant would be done, it will be done in the next white move. the move 2 in the example.
• White actually cannot do 2.cxd6 because last black move put with king undercheck. So in move 2, white cannot do any move that would leave the king under check ( enpassant included).

In simple words: the sequence its clear. White has been checkmated.

End of story.

Captures don't prevent the move in the first place. White cannot capture the black pawn en passant because it does nothing to get his own king out of check - see RG1951's  Post #5 - White cannot simply ignore the fact he is in check and try to come up with some lame excuse as to why that is the case.

Nielzzoz, your argument is flawed - just because Black can only checkmate White because White makes an error does not mean White automatically wins somehow: just because White should have won does not mean that he does actually win (and I'm not sure if White would win in the subsequent play even if he didn't play Bg2)

Black wins. Capturing en passant is not an option because it does not address the check from the Bishop on c8. You cannot "counter check".

Post #13 says it all.

• My point is right if white didnot play Bg2 black will never won the game and yes I agree that black won the game as the following sequence 1. Bg2 ..d5 and white mate black won no any more arguments is needed, white cannot by any mean take the black pawn as en passant because his king is under check black won. I agree with any one say black won.
• Thanks Rayyan. Nice puzzle.

Thanks Caedrel ,you are right as well I agree with you ,thank you very much for your analysis I HAVE TAKEN IN CONSIDERATION . you are right. Rayyan when I think its time to confirm it !!!

Nice one may call it the double vision puzzle.

haha Thanks, I missed this title ;)