In Part I of "Pawns In Passing", which you can find here, we learned about a special rule that allows pawns to capture each other differently than they usually do. You might not have known this rule before, but now you do. Let's practice it!
Why do we have this strange rule? Well, a long time ago, in the Middle Ages, pawns could only move one square at a time, even from their starting square. So a pawn on b2 could only go to b3 first, on its way to b4.
Around the year 1400 (over six hundred years ago!) the rules of chess were changed. Pawns could suddenly move two steps from their starting square. But it did not seem fair that a pawn could simply skip through a square where another pawn could capture it. So, they made the rule of en passant.
Now let's have an example of en passant happening in a game. This is from a recent game of mine in a chess tournament:
Black moved his pawn from d7 to d5 - a two-square move. The white pawn on e5 was in position to capture a pawn on d6...the square that Black's pawn passed through! So White had the right to capture the black d-pawn en passant. Notice that he did not have to capture it if he did not want to. But if he did something else (like move the queen to e2) then he would not be able to capture that pawn en passant later.
The next position is very tricky. Can you tell me if Black is in checkmate?
The correct answer is "I don't know!" This is because we really don't know if it is checkmate until we know what White's last move was. If it was f3-f4, then it is checkmate; if the pawn moved two squares, from f2, then Black can capture it en passant and save himself! This is the only time when you cannot tell from looking at the board whether it is checkmate or not.
Practice making an en passant capture yourself. In the following position, Black has just played ...b7-b5. Can you figure out how White can checkmate?
En Passant is an important rule in chess, and becomes possible at least once in most games. So don't let pawns pass you by...know how to capture them en passant!