En passant explained

This is the only capture in chess where the piece you take is not on the square you land on. That is why it looks wrong the first time you see it.

En passant is French for "in passing". It is said "on pass-onn".

The rule works like this. A pawn on its starting square may move two squares forward. If it lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn is allowed to capture it. The capturing pawn moves diagonally to the square the running pawn skipped over.

The captured pawn is then taken off the board. That is the part people find strange: your pawn lands on an empty square, and a pawn on a different square disappears.

All three of these must be true:

1. The enemy pawn moved two squares in one go, from its starting square.
2. It landed right next to your pawn, on the same rank. A rank is a row that goes across the board.
3. You capture on your very next move. FIDE's Laws of Chess say the capture is legal only on the move straight after the two-square advance.

Your pawn also has to be on the correct rank. For White that is the fifth rank; for Black it is the fourth rank. That is simply where a pawn ends up after the enemy pawn jumps past it.

• The pawn moved one square. A pawn that steps from d7 to d6 can be taken in the normal way, but that is not en passant.
• You waited a move. If you play something else first, the right is gone for the rest of the game. It never comes back.
• The piece next to it is not a pawn. Only a pawn can capture en passant, and only a pawn can be captured this way.
• Your pawn is on the wrong rank. A white pawn on e4 cannot capture a black pawn that jumps to d5, because they never end up side by side.

There is no way to save the capture for later. You either play it on your next move or you never play it at all.

Yes. The rule works exactly the same for both colours.

A black pawn that has reached the fourth rank can capture a white pawn that jumps two squares past it. The black pawn lands on the third rank, on the square the white pawn skipped.

The fourth chapter of the study above shows this. Black's pawn sits on e4, White's pawn jumps from d2 to d4, and Black answers with exd3.

You write it like any other pawn capture: the file your pawn came from, an x, and the square it lands on. In the study above that is exd6.

A file is a column that goes up and down the board. The files are named a to h.

Some books add e.p. after the move, like exd6 e.p.. That is only a note for the reader. The move is complete without it.

The most common mistake is thinking "I will take that pawn next move". By then the right has gone.

The fix is a habit. Every time an enemy pawn jumps two squares, look at your own pawns on the fifth rank (or the fourth rank if you are Black). Ask one question: is one of my pawns now standing beside it? If yes, decide right now whether to capture.

The second mistake is capturing every time you can. En passant is a normal capture, not a free gift. Sometimes it opens a file towards your own king, and sometimes it ruins your pawn chain. Look before you take.