En Passant: The basics

Ahh, it's Thanksgiving season! What better way to celebrate than to say what you're thankful for! For me? I'm thankful for En Passant.

En Passant:

For starters, what is En Passant? En Passant is when a player moves a pawn 2 spaces up and it lands next to an opposing pawn. The opposing pawn then can take your pawn as if it had moved up only 1 square. This is what it looks like:                                                                                                                

So that is En Passant. Cool huh? But there are some cases where En Passant would not apply. I will show you 2 of those cases.

Here, White can no longer do En Passant because it moved another piece first so it cannot take En Passant. Another case is this:

Here, White cannot do En Passant because Black didn't move their pawn 2 spaces only, only 1 space 2 times. 

Use in-game:

In-game En Passant can be a game-changer. For example, it can withhold pawns, and create passed pawns.

En Passant can also be used to checkmate the opponent. In 1928 Gunnar Gundersen checkmated A. H. Faul using En Passant.

So as you can see, En Passant can be used for many different purposes. It can be used in endgame positions, to get an edge on your opponent when you take their pawn, and to even checkmate them.

Funny quotes:

I've heard some pretty funny quotes about En Passant. Ready to hear some?

"This shouldn't be a part of chess" (No, I think this should very well stay a part of chess)

"Hey, that's cheating!" (This was in a tournament lol)

"You made an illegal move! That means you resign!" (Ummm sorry to break it to you buddy, but it is totally legal)

Closing remarks:

In all, En Passant, in my opinion, is a very creative rule in chess. It really adds more to the game. It can also trip people up in the Elite Level so anything can happen with En Passant (Plus it is really funny seeing beginners rage about this rule). 

Thank you for reading this, See you later!