Crash and Burn with En Passant

Motorcycle and motor scooter fans will be annoyed with this story, because I do not know the make and model of the vehicle. A friend of mine won a motorcycle or motor scooter in a prize drawing. Immediately, he hopped on his unexpected gift to try it out. Almost as immediately, he crashed. When he showed up to teach a class in his wheelchair and neck brace, some of his students cried .

Within two or three months, luckily, he was fully recovered . When he won the raffle for the vehicle, my friend was already a grown up. I think he was about 50 years old! Yet he made the mistake of trying something out without fully understanding its power. Maybe you have made the same mistake? I know that I have, with en passant.

Before I tell my en passant story, I will define en passant. If you like, follow the links to learn about the rules of en passant and the history of en passant. The next section of this article is adapted from "To e.p. or not to e.p." from my book Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving.

In chess, conditions for en passant (abbreviated e.p.) occur in less than one game out of 10 (according to a book by USCF & Kurzdorfer, 2003, p. 62). When a white pawn is on the algebraically-labeled fifth rank or a black pawn is on the algebraically-labeled fourth rank, it may capture (using the en passant rule) an enemy pawn that double jumps on an adjacent file. Adjacent means "next to."

Double jump does not mean you are playing checkers! It means that the pawn on its first move decides to move forward two squares. If you do not take e.p. right away, then the double-jumping pawn is safe from the e.p. capture. A white pawn capturing e.p. lands on the sixth rank and a black pawn capturing e.p. lands on the third rank, in both cases on same file as the captured enemy pawn. That enemy pawn is removed from the board. The next diagram shows a made-up game where each side makes double jumps with pawns and each side also makes e.p. captures.

It is finally time for my story. Even though I had played chess at home with my dad since I was five, I did not know all the rules of chess. That's because my dad did not know all the rules of chess either. So when I beat him at chess (or what we called chess at my home) at age nine-and-a-half, my dad took me to the local chess club in Lincoln, Nebraska.

I began playing tournaments for children under age 13. Before one of those tournaments, someone taught me the e.p. rule. I was so eager to try it out! Like with the motorcycle story, I can't remember everything about that game. But I do remember that I was White. I had a pawn on d5. My queen was on d1. My opponent had a rook on d8 and played his pawn from e7 to e5. I immediately played dxe6 e.p. Can you guess what he played? Hint: his move was an unpleasant surprise.

The diagram shows my e.p. crash and burn, though I am guessing now where the other chessmen were. I threw away that scoresheet.

There are three lessons to be learned.

First, do not throw away your scoresheets! Scoresheets are important so that you can review (and learn from) your chess games later on, with a coach, friend, or even by yourself. You can enter your chess games into a computer equipped with chess software. Then the computer can tell you what moves you played well and which of your moves need improvement.

Second, do not play en passant just because it is a legal move in your game. It might be a good move. Or it might lead to a crash and burn. You have to think ahead at least one move (your opponent's response) before you play en passant.

Third, thinking ahead is especially important when you are excited. When you are excited about trying out something new, like e.p. or a new motorcycle, you tend to act too quickly. Take it from me and my motorcycle friend: Do not move right away. Think before you move!