En Passant Explained: The Pawn Capture Rule (Play Free)

En passant ("in passing" in French) is a special pawn capture. If an enemy pawn moves two squares forward from its starting square and lands right beside your pawn, your pawn can capture it as if it had only moved one square. You move diagonally onto the square it skipped, and the enemy pawn is removed. You must do it immediately, on your very next move, or the chance is gone. Our free chess game includes en passant, so you can see it happen.

The rule in plain words

Three conditions must all be true:

1. Your pawn is on its fifth rank. For White that's row 5; for Black it's row 4. (That's three squares forward from where it started.)
2. An enemy pawn on a neighbouring file moves two squares from its starting square and lands right next to your pawn, on the same row.
3. You capture on your very next move. If you play anything else, the right to take that pawn en passant disappears.

When you capture, your pawn moves diagonally forward onto the empty square the enemy pawn passed over, and the enemy pawn is taken off the board, even though your pawn didn't land on its square.

An example

White has a pawn on e5. Black plays the pawn on d7 two squares forward to d5, so it now stands right beside White's pawn.

Had Black moved d7 to d6 (one square), the white pawn on e5 could capture it normally on d6. En passant says White may still capture as if that had happened:

• White plays exd6. The white pawn moves from e5 to d6.
• The black pawn on d5 is removed.

In notation, it looks like an ordinary pawn capture. Some books add "e.p." after it (exd6 e.p.).

Why does en passant exist?

Pawns originally moved one square at a time. When the two-square first move was introduced, centuries ago, to speed up the opening, it created a loophole: a pawn could skip straight past an enemy pawn that was waiting to capture it on the square it skipped.

En passant closes that loophole. The two-square move is still allowed, but it can't be used to dodge a capture that a one-square move would have run into. That's also why only pawns can capture en passant, and only pawns can be captured that way.

What en passant is not

Common misunderstandings:

• It doesn't work against a pawn that moved one square, even if it ends up beside yours. Only the two-square first move counts.
• It doesn't work against pieces. A knight or bishop landing next to your pawn can't be taken en passant.
• It's not compulsory. It's an option. (The only "forced" en passant is when it's your sole legal move, which is rare.)
• You can't save it for later. Wait even one move and the right is gone for that pawn.
• Your pawn must already be on the fifth rank. If it arrives there after the enemy pawn moved, it's too late.

Does en passant follow all the other rules?

Yes. It's an ordinary move in every other way:

• It's illegal if it would leave your own king in check. This occasionally matters, because two pawns leave the same row at once, which can open a line to your king.
• It can give check, or even checkmate.
• It resets the fifty-move count, because it's a pawn move and a capture.

How to do it in our game

1. Open the free chess game.
2. When the enemy pawn makes its two-square move next to yours, click your pawn.
3. A dot appears on the diagonal square behind the enemy pawn. Click it.
4. The enemy pawn disappears and the move list records the capture.

If you're not sure whether en passant is available, click your pawn. If the dot isn't there, one of the three conditions isn't met. A good way to practise is Two players mode, where you can set up the situation yourself by moving pawns for both sides.

Why it matters in real games

En passant decides more games than its reputation suggests:

• Pawn-race endgames, where one pawn sprinting two squares can be caught in passing.
• Openings like the French Defence and some lines of the Sicilian, where pawns face each other on the fifth rank.
• Puzzles: a well-known trick is mate by en passant, where the capture opens a line or delivers check.

It's also the rule that people most often think a computer is "cheating" with. It isn't; it's been part of standard chess for a very long time.

Learn the other special moves

En passant is one of three special moves, with castling and promotion. See how to castle in chess for the king-and-rook move, and how chess pieces move for the basics of every piece, including promotion.

Try en passant now

Start a two-player game in the free chess game, push a white pawn to the fifth rank, then make the black pawn beside it jump two squares. Click the white pawn and take it in passing.