En passant (French for “in passing”) is a special pawn capture. When an enemy pawn moves two squares forward from its starting square and lands right beside one of your pawns, your pawn can capture it as if it had moved only one square, but only on your very next move. It’s the only capture in chess where your piece doesn’t land on the square of the piece it captures, which is why it surprises so many players.
The rule in four conditions
You can capture en passant only when all four of these are true:
- Your pawn is on its fifth rank. For White, that’s the 5th rank. For Black, it’s the 4th rank.
- An enemy pawn on a neighboring file moved two squares forward from its starting square in a single move.
- That pawn landed directly beside yours, on the same rank.
- You capture on the very next move. If you play anything else first, the right disappears.
When all four are true, your pawn moves diagonally to the square the enemy pawn skipped over, and the enemy pawn is removed from the board.
A worked example
Picture a White pawn on e5. Black plays the pawn from d7 to d5, jumping two squares and landing beside White’s pawn.
- Had Black moved the pawn only to d6, White could have captured it with exd6.
- En passant lets White do exactly that anyway: the White pawn moves from e5 to d6, and the Black pawn on d5 is removed.
- In notation this is written exd6, sometimes with e.p. added (exd6 e.p.) to make it clear.
The same thing works for Black. With a Black pawn on d4, if White plays c2–c4 or e2–e4, Black can reply dxc3 or dxe3, landing on the square behind the White pawn and removing it.
| Your pawn must be on | Enemy pawn moves | You capture onto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White captures | 5th rank (e.g. e5) | 7th to 5th rank (e.g. d7–d5) | 6th rank (d6) |
| Black captures | 4th rank (e.g. d4) | 2nd to 4th rank (e.g. e2–e4) | 3rd rank (e3) |
Why does en passant exist?
In early chess, pawns could only move one square at a time. The option to move two squares on a pawn’s first move was added in Europe sometime between the 13th and 16th centuries to speed up the opening.
That change created a loophole. A pawn could use its double step to slip past an enemy pawn that would have been able to capture it on the square it skipped. En passant closes the loophole: the double step still saves time, but it can’t be used to dodge a capture.
The rule took a while to become universal. It appears in a 1561 book by the Spanish priest and player Ruy López de Segura, but players in Italy long used a version without it, and Italy only adopted the standard rule around 1880. That makes en passant one of the last major changes to European chess.
Common mistakes and myths
- “I can take it a few moves later.” No. It must be your next move.
- “Any piece next to the pawn can take it.” No. Only pawns capture en passant, and only pawns are captured that way.
- “Two one-square moves count.” No. The enemy pawn must have moved two squares in a single move from its starting square.
- “The captured pawn stays until something lands on it.” No. It’s removed right away, even though your pawn lands on a different square.
- “You have to take.” No. En passant is optional, unless it’s your only legal move.
Special cases worth knowing
It can be illegal because of your king. As with any move, you can’t capture en passant if it leaves your own king in check. One tricky version involves a rank: imagine a White king on a5, a White pawn on b5, and a Black rook on h5. If Black plays c7–c5, capturing bxc6 e.p. would remove both pawns from the 5th rank and expose the king to the rook, so the capture isn’t allowed.
It can give check, even double check. En passant clears two squares at once: the one your pawn left and the one the captured pawn stood on. That can uncover an attack by a rook, bishop or queen, and if the pawn also gives check from its new square, the result is double check. A well-known game played in Melbourne in 1928, Gundersen vs. Faul, ended exactly that way, with an en passant capture delivering double check and mate.
It affects draws by repetition. Under the threefold repetition rule, two positions only count as the same if the same moves are possible. A position where an en passant capture is available is treated as different from the same arrangement where it isn’t.
Should you capture en passant?
Treat it like any other capture: it’s good when it helps you, not just because it’s available. A few questions to ask:
- Does the enemy pawn become dangerous if you leave it? A pawn that slips past yours can become a passed pawn, with no enemy pawns left to stop it from promoting. Taking it en passant prevents that.
- Does the capture open a file? Trading pawns can open lines for your rooks, or for your opponent’s.
- Would you rather keep the tension? Sometimes keeping your pawn where it is, cramping the opponent, is stronger than trading it.
It can come up as early as move three: after 1.e4 e6 2.e5 d5, White may capture 3.exd6 e.p. More often it appears in the middlegame, when one side has a pawn on the fifth rank and the other pushes a neighboring pawn two squares to challenge it.
Try it yourself
The chess game on Pass and Play Games follows the full rules of chess, so en passant works just as described here, along with castling and promotion. Set up a game against the computer, push a pawn to your fifth rank and watch for the moment an enemy pawn jumps beside it. If you miss the chance, use undo and try again. For every other special rule, read the chess rules guide, and when you’re ready to put it all together, learn how to checkmate or pick a beginner-friendly opening.