En passant is a unique privilege of pawns—other pieces cannot capture en passant. It is the only capture in chess in which the capturing piece does not replace the captured piece on its square.
When can you not capture en passant?
A few things to reiterate: Because en passant can only occur after an opposing pawn has moved two steps forward, as a general rule pawns may only capture en passant on the 5th rank (for white) or the 4th (for black). Again, en passant is only legal the turn the two-step advance is made.
Is en passant forced?
If capturing en passant is possible, it is a legal move so if it is the only option, Black is required to play the move.
How many times can you en passant in chess?
How many times may a pawn capture by en passant? Given how the pawns move, any given pawn will have a maximum of two opportunities to capture a pawn by en passant, though it is limited to taking only one of them.
Why can’t pieces capture en passant?
En passant is an exception to cure another exception: that pawns can advance twice on only their initial move. Since pieces have no such exception, there is no reason to cure the exception. I’m not following this train of thought.
Why are pawns not allowed to capture en passant?
The rule of pawns being able to move 2 squares on their first move is relatively recent, and the en passant rule counters it. The reasoning being that a player should not be allowed to create passed pawns without a challenge, otherwise everyone would just keep pushing their pawns relentlessly.
When do you have to capture en passant in chess?
The en passant capture must be performed on the turn immediately after the pawn being captured moves. If the player does not capture en passant on that turn, they no longer can do it later. This type of capture cannot happen if the capturing pawn has already advanced four or more squares.
Why was the rule of en passant created?
The rule was included so pawns could not evade capture by moving two squares forward and become “passed pawns” (pawns that no other pawn can attack). Passed pawns have a much easier time promoting, so en passant was created to keep games fair. This rule was added in the fifteenth century.
