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En Passant This is another of the special and complicated moves in chess, and like castling, beginners often make mistakes when trying to capture en passant. Basically, en passant let's you pretend your opponent moved his pawn one square when he really moved it two. It helps to understand how this rule works if you've heard of a little history. Today, a pawn has the option of moving straight ahead two squares on it's first move, and at all other times can only go one square on each move. But centuries ago this wasn't allowed -- pawns could only move one square at a time. They changed the rule so now a pawn could fly past an enemy pawn with no chance of capture at all. This made the game faster and more interesting, but it also made the pawns too powerful. This didn't seem right, so the en passant rule was invented. The rule gave the other side the right to capture a pawn that flies past it by going two squares on it's first move, as if it only moved one square. This way one side can cancel out the special move by the other side, if they choose to. But it has to be done right away. If it's not done immediately after the other side moves their pawn two squares, that pawn can't be captured by the en passant rule again. In other words, the rule goes like this, if a pawn moves two squares on it's first move, a pawn of the other color on the square to it's side can immediately capture it as pawns normally capture. Remember pawns always capture on the diagonal. So the capturing pawn moves into the empty square the other pawn just passed over, and removes the enemy pawn from the square it's on. Maybe some pictures will help make this rule clearer. In this example, White will capture a Black pawn en passant. In this position, White moves a pawn from e4 to e5. This pawn is now able to capture on d6 and f6. Black moves a pawn from d7 to d5, jumping over the d6 square. White capture the Black pawn en passant, and ends up on d6.
In order to capture en passant, it has to be done immediately after the enemy pawn moved two squares. If White chooses to do anything else, he forever gives up the chance to capture that pawn en passant. White doesn't have to capture that pawn en passant if he doesn't want to. Of course, if the situation allows it, either side can capture other pawns en passant on other moves. The rule kicks in whenever any pawn moves two squares. This is an exception to the rule that chess pieces always capture by replacing the opposing piece on the square it occupies. It's the only exception to the rule that captures happen when you "land on" an enemy piece. It's a very special move, and it's very important to know how it works, even if you don't use it all the time. For a beginner, this takes some getting used to. Beginner's get it wrong all the time, and its one way to tell a beginner from an experienced player.
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