En passant is FORCED!!!©
En passant is a move where if one player pushes one of their pawns 2 spaces, then the other can take the piece by moving a pawn adjacent to the square that the other pawn moved to by taking it like they would if the pawn moved one square. Here is an example:
In this example, black moved his pawn up 2, and white took it en passant.
You can only do this move the turn right after the pawn was pushed 2 squares. Here is another example:
In this example, white cannot take the pawn en passant because it is not the turn right after the pawn was pushed 2 spaces.
In my opinion, this move is FORCED. It is forced because you only have one chance to take that pawn en passant. If you don't take it, you can never take that pawn en passant for the rest of the game.
For me, that is a big deal because I find en passant fun. If I don't do an en passant, then I am sad because it is one of my favorite moves. I also would do en passant if I could, even if I had a mate in 1 and the opponent has a mate in 1 also. I would do this because I can win all the time, but en passant does not happen every game, and so I am always on the lookout for a chance to en passant, even if it means losing the game. This is a game from GMHikaru's YouTube channel titled "Hikaru's reddit reacts."
In this position, black pushes his c pawn, even though white has a mate in 1. Here is the position now:
White has 2 different options as I have shown using the arrows. He has a mate in 1 by moving his queen down one square and taking the pawn to checkmate or.........HE CAN TAKE THE PAWN EN PASSANT!!!!! Guess what happens in the actual game. This is what happens:
White chose to take the pawn en passant instead of the mate. This allows black to move his rook forwards and checkmate the white king. In this position as white, I would also choose to take the pawn en passant because en passant is forced.
En passant actually is not "forced". Players like to say that it is forced, but there are other moves that you can do instead of en passant. A "forced" move is a move that you have to do. You have no other options, so you have to do that move. Here is an example of a forced move:
After black moved his queen, white had only one move, and that was to move his king over one square. That is a forced move. Now, I'll show you another position:
In this position, after black moved his pawn up 2, white has many different options. He does not have to take the pawn en passant. He can instead move either of his pawns up one square, or move his king. This is an example where en passant is not "forced", but I would still en passant because it is fun. Here is another position:
In this position, after black checks with the pawn, white has only one move, en passant. This is because the white king cannot move anywhere, and so he has to take the pawn. The only way to take the pawn is en passant. Here is a position where en passant actually is "forced".
The point of this blog is not if a move is forced or not, it is so that you can believe, like me and many other chess players, that en passant is forced. I hope that after reading this blog, that that is what you think and that you would do en passant when you have the chance to. Because en passant is "Do it now, or do it never."
