Chess question, PLEASE help.?

Question

I've been playing for a few months now. When I played a game on my dads computer, it did something I didn't get.

The computer moved it's pawn up two, so it was directly beside my pawn(instead of moving it's knight out of danger which was on the same line, two over, and about to be attacked by my pawn). When I clicked on the pawn it gave me three choices. Move up one, kill his horse(which I thought were my only two options besides not moving at all) and it ALSO gave me the option of moving in behind his pawn that just moved up two. I took that move just because I've never seen it, and HIS pawn disappeared! He took my pawn with his rook.

What rule is this?! I've never heard of this. I asked my mom's boyfriend who's been playing for over 30 years, but he hadn't ever seen it before. I thought it might be a glitch.

But THEN, he called me tonight and said on his computer, it did the same thing (and he was screwed because of it).

PLEASE help??

Answer 1

The EN PASSANT rule.

You capture the pawn as if it had moved only one square,

only on the first chance that you can do it.

The link that I provide as my source

has a detailed explanation and a quiz about the lesson.

http://www.chesskids.com/kids/enpas.htm

Answer 2

That is exactly correct. It is "En passant"  It's always a shock to people when they first begin to play because almost nobody knows about it. It's just another move, it's not a super power or anything, don't do it unless it benefits you.

Answer 3

Hello --

The move you are describing is called "En Passant".  It is a French term meaning "In Passing".  

The underlying idea is that if the opposing pawn had moved only one square you could capture it.  Remember the pawns moving two squares on the first move was a rule designed to speed up the game.  

It can only be used on the move immediately after the opposing pawn has moved two squares ... if you don't capture then you can't do it later.

Best of luck in your journey,

Bill

Answer 4

It's a rule in chess, you can take the pawn only if it's its first move and it moved 2 spaces. Think of it like if the pawn had moved only 1 space.