En Passant in Chess: The Complete Guide to Chess's Most Misunderstood Rule

The first time you see en passant, you will probably think your opponent broke a rule. A pawn captures on a square where nothing was standing, and an enemy pawn disappears. It looks wrong. The move is completely legal, it has been part of chess for more than 500 years, and it still starts more arguments between friends than any other rule. Here is exactly how it works and why it exists.

En passant is a special pawn capture. The name is French for 'in passing', which describes it well. Your pawn captures an opponent's pawn as that pawn passes by, even though the two never share a square.

Picture your pawn on its fifth rank, the fifth row counting from your side of the board. Your opponent pushes a pawn two squares forward from its starting square, and it lands directly beside yours. Pawns normally capture on a diagonal, and this enemy pawn did not land on a diagonal square, so it looks safe. En passant says otherwise. You may capture that pawn as though it had moved only one square, sliding your pawn diagonally to the square behind it. The enemy pawn comes off the board.

Your pawn appears to capture an empty square. In practice, it removes the enemy pawn that just skipped past, and the position is completely legal.

En passant is legal only when every one of these four conditions is true. Miss one and the capture is off the table.

1. Your pawn sits on its fifth rank. For White that is the fifth row, for Black the fourth.
2. The enemy pawn moves two squares from its starting square. The two-square jump is what creates the chance. A pawn that arrived one step at a time does not qualify.
3. You capture on your very next move. The window lasts one move. Play anything else and the chance disappears for that pawn.
4. The capture is a normal diagonal step forward. Your pawn moves to the square the enemy pawn passed over, and that enemy pawn leaves the board.

If you are still getting comfortable with the board itself, our guide to setting up a chess board covers the fundamentals first.

En passant was added in the 15th century to fix a problem that another rule change had created. Pawns originally moved one square at a time, even on their first move, which made openings slow. Chess added the two-square first move to speed things up. That change opened a loophole: a pawn could use its two-square jump to slip straight past an enemy pawn that should have been able to capture it. En passant closed the loophole. A pawn still gets its two-square first move, but it can no longer use that move to dodge a capture that would have been legal under the old one-square rule.

En passant is optional, so a legal capture is not automatically the right one. It tends to pay off when it opens a file for your rook or a diagonal for your bishop, when it saddles your opponent with isolated or doubled pawns, or when it clears the last pawn blocking your own march to promotion.

Hold off when the capture weakens your own pawn structure, pulls a pawn away from a square it needs to defend, or when you simply have a stronger move. The one-move deadline creates pressure, and pressure produces rushed decisions. Weigh it like any other move on the board. To get better at spotting these moments, our chess puzzles are a good place to train.

• "En passant can happen anywhere on the board." It cannot. Your capturing pawn has to be on its fifth rank.
• "Any two side-by-side pawns can be taken this way." Only when the neighbouring pawn advanced two squares on the move right before yours.
• "I can capture on a later turn." You cannot. The chance lasts one move and then it is gone.
• "It is optional, so skipping it never matters." It is optional, but in some positions en passant is clearly the best move, and passing it up costs you.

For more of the fundamentals, see our chess strategies for beginners guide.

In over-the-board play, en passant follows the touch-move rule like any other move, and you have to make the capture before you play anything else. Online, the platform handles the mechanics for you and usually highlights the option when you click the pawn that can take.

A pawn advances two squares, lands beside yours, and you take it as though it had moved only one. Remember the four conditions and the single-move window and en passant will stop catching you off guard. When you are ready to sharpen your openings next, our best chess openings for beginners guide is a good next step.