Pawns Can't Pass Like Ships In The Night!?!

In a recent OTB game I was playing against a friend of mine. The opening progressed normally for about the first twelve moves or so. My white e-pawn was advanced to the 5th rank, a good location but not really threatening anything at the moment. On his next move, my friend opted to push his f-pawn ONE square forward, thus meeting my e-pawn diagonally. Now the position seemed ripe with possibilities, especially with a rook supporting my forward pawn. So instead of taking his pawn for an exchange, I moved my pawn straight ahead to the 6th rank, thereby passing his pawn to add pressure against his center.

Lo and behold, my friend erupted with anger shouting, 'You can't do that!' I was shocked as he continued his tirade. 'You HAVE to take my pawn!! You can't just go straight ahead!' I tried to assure him there was no rule stating my pawn was obligated to take his pawn. After much steam came out of his ears he reluctantly accepted my pawn move, though he still thought I was cheating.

I can only surmise that whoever taught my friend chess back in his childhood must have confused the en passant rule somehow, making him believe that pawns are forced to take a challenging pawn next move and aren't allowed to pass like ships in the night.

Anybody else have other examples of skewed rules from your experience??

Funny, chessmicky! Almost sounds like 'Queen For A Day.' Here's some info from Google if you aren't familiar with it:

Queen for a Day was an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows. Queen for a Day originated on the Mutual Radio Network on April 30, 1945 in New York City before moving to Los Angeles a few months later, and running until 1957. The show then ran on NBC Television from 1956 to 1964.^[1]

The series is considered a forerunner of modern-day "reality television".^[2] The show became popular enough that NBC increased its running time from 30 to 45 minutes to sell more commercials, at a then-premium rate of $4,000 per minute.^[

I played a girlfriend once that insisted you can't castle if you've moved any of the pawns in front of the area you want to castle(e2, f2, g2 or h2). I tried to explain the rules of castling but she wouldn't hear it, so I kept my king in the middle and won anyway :) We never played again.

Well, my wife still thinks that you can only have 1 Queen for side on the board, anytime i try to explain that you can theortically get 9 Queens she looks at me like i was totally making that rule up.

Another time long ago I played someone who had NEVER HEARD of Pawn Promotion. Needless to say, soon's I pushed my pawn to the 8th, the guy went ballistic after I set my new Queenie on the board. He flipped the whole board, pieces and all, in my face.  (Now it seems kinda funny but it wasn't at the time.) It was a nice folding board set from West Germany that my sister gave me for a birthday and when I inspected it after the blowup there was a crack in the wood along one of the hinges. Really ticked me off. Never played that idiot again.

well tell her to come to chess.com and play.

Then he is a noob.

You should've slain him like the cowardly idiot he is.  

I hope the reason you never played again is because you broke up with her immediately after this incident.

Another one: Players who will set the board up so quickly that there's a DARK square to the right, not the light square. A few moves into the game I tell them it's wrong and we have to start over and reset the pieces. Their response--'Oh, it doesn't matter, just PLAY.'

It matters.

The joys of having an alternative set of rules. Any reasonable person would have taken the move back and captured the pawn with a smile on their face. All's swell that ends well.

Oh hell no. She had many other fine attributes :) She was a dancer at a club I bounced for. Eventually she moved out of State....

Sadlived noobs are easy to beat :)

If it was a GM that thought the pawns could only move a certain way, well that would be worth mentioning, rather than just someone who wasn't fully acquainted with how the game is played.

Spiritbro77, I take it your girlfriend never castled then--how could she get her Bishop through the wall of pawns in front of it, Magic?? As for the uncastled king in the middle, I have won a few games here and there even though my king was denied castling. Not too often but it's not necessarily the end of the world if the king is partially exposed, as long as he can find some cover behind other pieces. And maybe become active in saving his own skin.

Perhaps I misspoke. f2,g2,h2...

And yes, I know it's not the end of the world. For a long time I played with friends and we never castled.

:lol: I remember at the Rec Center in 6th grade, one older kid I was learning strategy from would say, 'I'll spot you a rook & I can't castle and I'll STILL beat you.'

He did!! But eventually I could win a game here and there. Thanks to him I didn't lose interest in the game.

a  guy i played at a ches club thought i was trolling him with the whole

knight can skip pieces concept ....so i checkmated him with pawns

*jump over

Simply put, your opponent is a

Plotato.