The Great Pawn Hunter
Chess Tutorial

En Passant

"En Passant" means "in passing". Here we have a white pawn on its starting square. It can either move two squares (to d4) or one square (to d3). Every pawn can do this. However, each pawn can move "two squares" only once in the game. If the pawn is to move two squares, it must be on its starting square. When a pawn on its starting square moves "two squares" in one move, the "En Passant" rule can be used.

Here we have the white pawn pushing by the black pawn on the fourth rank with a "two square" move. Since it did not allow the black pawn to capture it(for example by only moving one square ...to d3), the Black pawn is now allowed to capture the white pawn using the "en passant" rule. The "X" represents where the pawn will reside when it captures the white pawn. This "En Passant" rule must happen on the current move of the game. If black waits, they can not capture that white pawn by "En Passant."...it is for the current move only.











En Passant - Losing

(23) Winther,E - Malin,O [A18]
Varturnering op Vadso (2), 2000
[Fealy,Manus]

16.Kg2 Both the black queen and the black bishop are attacking the white pawn on the f3 square. If only there was a way to attack it with other pieces.
16...f5 17.exf6 this move is called "en passant" which means "in passing." Black pushed the pawn to f5 to gain space on the kingside and also to block the white d3 bishop. White wants his b1-h7 diagonal open for his bishop so he uses the "en passant" rule.
17...Nxf6 18.Be2 0-0 However, White did not expect that the black army would now have an open file with a rook on it to attack down the (F) file. In this case, it was black that wanted the white pieces to use the en-passant rule so black could get a quicker attack on the f3 pawn.
19.h4 Qg6 20.Kh3 Qf5+ 21.Kg2 Nh5 22.Kh2 Nf4 threatening a checkmate Q-h3 followed by Q-g2 mate.
23.Bxf4 Qxf4+ 24.Kg2 Rf6 25.Rg1 Qxh4 26.Kf1 Raf8 black brings all of his army into the fight on the weakness in the white camp...the weak f3 pawn.
27.Ke1 Bxf3 28.Bxf3 Rxf3 29.Qe2 Rxf2 now black can move the rook and make a discovered check against the white king with a powerful double check R-f1 attacking the white king with rook and queen. [ 29...Rxf2 30.Qg4 Rf1+ 31.Kd2 Qf2+ 32.Qe2 Qf4+ 33.Qe3 Rf2+ 34.Kd3 Qf5+ 35.Qe4 Rf3+ 36.Kd2 Qxe4 ] 0-1

En Passant - Winning


(25) Agdestein,S (2574) - Jenni,F (2505) [E29]
ICC-ch blitz fin Internet ICC (3.2), 24.08.2002
[Fealy,Manus]

13...d5 Bishops are usually better than knights when the center is free of pawns. Black has the knights and they are better than the bishops when the center is cluttered up with pawns! With this pawn push, Black is hoping to close up the center with pawns because he has the two knights.
14.exd6 14...Nxd6 15.d5 White keeps making pawn trades in the center to open up those diagonals.
15...exd5 16.cxd5 Bxd3 When you have the knights, it is usually good to keep your opponent from having the two bishops when the center is open and free of pawns....so, black trades his last remaining bishop to keep white from having two of them on the board.
17.Qxd3 Black traded the bishop but in doing so helped white to develop his Queen to the center, where it can help the passed pawn move up the board...passed pawns must be pushed!
17...Ne4 18.Bb2 Ne7 19.Rad1 Now that White has centralized his pieces, he starts to push the passed D pawn up the board.
19...Qd7 20.d6 Ng6 21.Ng3 Rae8 22.Qd5+ Kh8 23.Nxe4 removing Black's hostile knight from the center of the board because it is attacking the pawn on d6.
23...Rxe4 24.Rc1 Rxf4 25.Rc7 This is a classic way of helping your pawn to move up the board...by occupying the outpost square of the pawn on either c7 or e7.
25...Rxf1+ 26.Kxf1 Nf4 27.Qe5 Nd3 28.Rxd7 after Nxe5 then Bxe5 and White will be up a minor piece! 1-0

I hope that this lesson was explained well enough so you can apply "en passant" in your own games. I wish you many hours of peace playing our wonderful game of chess.

Copyright © Manus Patrick Fealy 1994-2005

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