# Chess: why can only pawns capture en passant? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 14, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782 "2008-11-14T22:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/21 "2008-11-16T10:52:56Z")
> [@Hoops](#): > > The parenthetical–and especially italicized–parts are my own conjecture, obviously. Is there no record of debate–correspondence, articles, letters to editors–that might shed some light on how chess players of the time may have viewed these new rules? As I said, these changes came in hundreds of years\* ago. Around the same time, the Queen and bishop were powered up enormously. Given that en passant is rare anyway, I doubt there is any written evidence… \*the Gutenberg printing press was only invented about 50 years earlier, so I would be surprised to hear there was a chess magazine by that time! ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/22 "2008-11-16T11:15:03Z")
It’s also worth noting that until comparatively recently, _en passant_ wasn’t universal, and the Italian rule _passar battaglia_ (which is Italian for “That’s just tough”\*) applied in that country until the 1880s - long after the double move was invented. \*Not really ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/23 "2008-11-16T21:34:05Z")
There’s more involved with a two-step past an adjacent pawn than just avoiding capture. Pawn play in chess revolves around trying to create a “passed pawn”–that is, a pawn not blocked by an enemy pawn on either its own or an adjacent file. Such a pawn becomes a queening threat, and can often tie down an enemy piece. It becomes too easy to create a passed pawn if you can just two-step past an enemy pawn once the enemy reaches the fifth rank. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/24 "2008-11-17T00:03:55Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Pawn play in chess revolves around trying to create a “passed pawn”–that is, a pawn not blocked by an enemy pawn on either its own or an adjacent file.. That’ll be news to [Hans Kmoch, who wrote the epic Pawn Power in Chess,](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pawn-Power-Chess-Hans-Kmoch/dp/0486264866) where he discusses concepts like pawn chains, the quartgrip, pawn structures favouring bishops, pawn structures favouring knights, melanopenia and leucopenia. > [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > It becomes too easy to create a passed pawn if you can just two-step past an enemy pawn once the enemy reaches the fifth rank. Bearing in mind that the pawn doing the two-step has never moved before, how likely is it that it will become a passed pawn? 😕 Have you got any Grandmaster games showing this happening? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/25 "2008-11-17T01:20:36Z")
> [@glee](#): > > That’ll be news to [Hans Kmoch, who wrote the epic Pawn Power in Chess,](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pawn-Power-Chess-Hans-Kmoch/dp/0486264866) where he discusses concepts like pawn chains, the quartgrip, pawn structures favouring bishops, pawn structures favouring knights, melanopenia and leucopenia. Yes, yes, yes . . . so I should have said “one important aspect” of pawn play. So shoot me. > [@glee](#): > > Bearing in mind that the pawn doing the two-step has never moved before, how likely is it that it will become a passed pawn? 😕 > Have you got any Grandmaster games showing this happening? 😕 How could it happen, when the en passant rule allows the opponent to capture? What do _you_ think is the purpose of the rule, if not to prevent pawns from sliding past enemy pawns on the adjacent fifth rank? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/26 "2008-11-17T01:30:07Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Yes, yes, yes . . . so I should have said “one important aspect” of pawn play. So shoot me. I don’t mean to offend, but you claimed pawn play ‘revolves around creating passed pawns’. This is only a minor part of pawn play and (for example) **pawn structure is far more important**. > [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > 😕 How could it happen, when the en passant rule allows the opponent to capture? > > What do _you_ think is the purpose of the rule, if not to prevent pawns from sliding past enemy pawns on the adjacent fifth rank? The purpose of the rule (as was said early in the thread) is indeed to prevent pawns sliding by. **But this has nothing to do with passed pawns.** (And I cannot recall a Grandmaster game where a player would have been able to create a passed pawn if the en passant capture did not exist.) ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/27 "2008-11-17T18:28:43Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Sorry :o , but no, this doesn’t make any sense at all. :eek: > > 1. It’s difficult to arrange to control the centre by capturing. Normally you just advance your d+e pawns (plus sometimes the c and f pawns). > OK, the Saemisch variation of the Nimzo-Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. **bxc3** ) does use a capture towards the centre. However Black gets counterplay against the doubled pawns. But this sort of variation is rare - **and doesn’t involve en passant anyway**. > > 2. The centre is e4/d4/e5/d5. **There is no en passant capture that finishes by controlling any of these squares**. Indeed the capturing pawn would probably be moving away from the centre! > In a variation of the Petroff (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. **exd6 en passant** ), the White pawn is already on e5. It then captures away from the centre (and is recaptured anyway). Sounds like you know better than me. I’m very far from an expert in chess strategy. I thought (incorrectly, I guess) that you weren’t following **Boozahol Squid, P.I.**'s claim that en passant captures can give pawns the opportunity to move towards the central files. Whether this is typically desirable or not is beyond me. I would think that making it harder to, say, move the pawn from the g file to the f file reduces that pawns value, but what do I know? Or were you really just objecting to the fact that he (and I in expanding on it) used the term “center” when I think he really meant “middle two files”? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/28 "2008-11-17T18:59:37Z")
> [@glee](#): > > \*the Gutenberg printing press was only invented about 50 years earlier, so I would be surprised to hear there was a chess magazine by that time! I don’t know. You know that one of the first books printed in English was 1474’s “Game and Playe of The Chesse”, right? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/29 "2008-11-17T19:17:38Z")
And, btw, the book talks about double moves for pawns. > [@](#): > > One yffue and one mouynge apperteyneth vnto alle the peple/ For they may goo fro the poynt they stande in at the first meuynge vnto the thirde poynt right forth to fore them/ & whan they haue so don they may afterward meue no more but fro one poynt ryght forth in to an other/ And they may neuer retorne backward And thus goynge forth fro poynt to poynt They may gete by vertue and strengthe/ that thynge that the other noble fynde by dignyte/ And yf the knyghtes and other nobles helpe hem that they come to the ferthest lygne to fore them where theyr aduersaryes were sette. They acquyre the dignyte that the quene hath graunted to her by grace Or, in more modern english, > [@](#): > > One issue and one moving pertains to all the people [the pawns]. For they may go from the point they stand it at the first [meunynge?] unto the third square right forth in front of them, and when they have done so, they may afterward move no more but to one square in front of them. And they may never return forward. And thus going forth from point to point, they may get by virtue and strength that thing that the other nobles find by dignity. And if the knights and other nobles help them that they come to the furthest line in front of them where their adversaries were set, they acquire the dinity that the queen has granted to her by grace. And on capturing: > [@](#): > > And y’e shall vnderftande/ whan thyse comyn peple meue right forth in her ligne/ and fynde ony noble persone or of the peple of their aduersaries sette in the poynt at on ony side to fore hym/ In that corner poynt he may take his aduersarye wherther hit be on the right side or on the lifte/ And the cause is that the aduersaries ben suspecyous that the comyn peple lye In a wayte to Robbe her goodes or to take her persones whan they goo vpward right forth. And therfore he may take in the right angle to fore hym one of his aduersaries/ As he had espied his persone/ And in the lifte angle as robber of his goodes/ Or, my translation: > [@](#): > > And you shall understand, when these common people move forward in the line and find any noble person or common person of their adversaries set in the square in front of them on either side, he can take his adversary in that corner whether it’s on the right side or the left. As the cause is that the adversaries are suspcisious that the common people lie in wait to rob their goods or take their persons when they go forward and to the right. And therefore, he can take in the right square in front of him one of his adversaries as he saw his person, and in the left angle as a robber of his goods. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/30 "2008-11-17T19:23:38Z")
Can I submit this thread to the “Why is the SDMB Special” list? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/31 "2008-11-17T22:20:09Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > Sounds like you know better than me. I’m very far from an expert in chess strategy. I thought (incorrectly, I guess) that you weren’t following **Boozahol Squid, P.I.**'s claim that en passant captures can give pawns the opportunity to move towards the central files. Whether this is typically desirable or not is beyond me. I would think that making it harder to, say, move the pawn from the g file to the f file reduces that pawns value, but what do I know? > > Or were you really just objecting to the fact that he (and I in expanding on it) used the term “center” when I think he really meant “middle two files”? I’m sorry if I get a bit carried away when chess is mentioned on the SDMB :o, but I am a professional chess teacher and internationally ranked player. Given our motto demands precision, I do challenge imprecise chess statements. It’s true that en passant can move a pawn closer to the centre files, but it can equally move it away. I estimate that I use en passant about once every 500 games, so it’s really not an important part of pawn play. Also given the capturing pawn ends up close to the enemy starting area, it’s usually recaptured immediately. So I don’t think en passant adds much to a pawn’s value. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/32 "2008-11-17T22:31:22Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > And, btw, the book talks about double moves for pawns. Your research is most impressive! 🙂 However there is no discussion of game theory, or why en passant is important compensation. As your source says (page 23) “Nothing has yet been said as to the place of this book in the history of chess, and, indeed, it must be confessed that it has very little practical bearing on the game.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/33 "2008-11-18T00:02:18Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Your research is most impressive! 🙂 > > However there is no discussion of game theory, or why en passant is important compensation. > As your source says (page 23) “Nothing has yet been said as to the place of this book in the history of chess, and, indeed, it must be confessed that it has very little > practical bearing on the game.” Caxton actually doesn’t mention en passant at all (which suggests that it postdates him) or game theory (which postdates him by almost 500 years). The book also was written before the queen’s and bishop’s power was increased. Like one commentator said: > [@](#): > > Incidentally his book is a monument in the history of chess, but it was never intended to make its primary object that of teaching the game. The author’s aim was almost exclusively ethical. It was to win men to a sober life and to the due performance of individual and social duties, that the preacher exhausted his stores of learning, and invoked alike the reproofs of the fathers of the Church, the history and legend of chroniclers, pagan and Christian, and the words of prophets and poets. It’s still an interesting historical curiousity, though. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/34 "2008-11-18T04:30:05Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’m sorry if I get a bit carried away when chess is mentioned on the SDMB :o, but I am a professional chess teacher and internationally ranked player. > Given our motto demands precision, I do challenge imprecise chess statements. No worries. I think it’s great that this board is frequented by so many experts on different topics. Next time I see you posting in a chess thread I’ll know to pay attention instead of stupidly trying to “explain” something. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/35 "2008-11-18T05:07:28Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I estimate that I use en passant about once every 500 games, so it’s really not an important part of pawn play. > Also given the capturing pawn ends up close to the enemy starting area, it’s usually recaptured immediately. > So I don’t think en passant adds much to a pawn’s value. Oh come now, glee. Threat is stronger than the execution. And En Passant doesn’t just factor into passed pawns. There’s a line of the King’s Indian that involves Black playing Nd7 and white plays d5. Sooner or later, …a5 is played. Sure, I’d like to play a3 and b4 as white but I can’t since a3 is answered by …a4, locking things up. Why does this lock it up? En passant, of course. b4 would be a great retort if not for …axb3 ep. When you say you use ep in only 1/500 games, I’m sure you only mean you \*play \*it in 1 of 500. I bet it comes into consideration more than you realize. I justify e.p. by saying that a pawn’s job is to watch over the other pawns. You can’t have passers, backwards pawns, good bishops, or open files without the enemy pawns being there too. A Rook’s job isn’t to watch pawns, though, so only the pawn gets the special privilege of taking ep. Chessic Sense, poster formally known as IntelSoldier [I’ve been posting in four or five military threads since the name change. I felt like my comments were weaker. Nice to have this to balance it out.] ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/36 "2008-11-18T06:09:48Z")
> [@Hoops](#): > > [This was only intended to move the game forward, and not to confer any new powers of escape to the pawns. In other words, _the result of the game should be just the same as if the two-move rule never existed, only faster._] I don’t believe this to be the case. The double space initial pawn move rule could have been introduced to speed up the game without disrupting the relative strength of the pieces. They might not have particularly cared about whether the actual result of the game should be the same or not. Think about it rationally here. To move 4 spaces with pawns before the double move rule would have taken 4 moves. To move 3 spaces with pawns would have taken 3 moves. To move 4 spaces with pawns now requires 2 moves minimum. To move 3 spaces with pawns requires 2 moves minimum. The ratio of pawn movement to turns required was NOT universally altered by the double move rule, so the intent of the makers of the rule couldn’t have possibly been to ensure the outcome of the game would be no different with a double move. The intent of the rule was to speed up the game without unbalancing the strength of the pieces relative to each other. So in order to prevent pawns from being immune to other pawns in certain situations, en passant was introduced to balance it. That’s my best guess, at least. I’m not a chess expert or a chess historian. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/37 "2008-11-18T13:45:59Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Oh come now, glee. Threat is stronger than the execution. And En Passant doesn’t just factor into passed pawns. There’s a line of the King’s Indian that involves Black playing Nd7 and white plays d5. Sooner or later, …a5 is played. Sure, I’d like to play a3 and b4 as white but I can’t since a3 is answered by …a4, locking things up. Why does this lock it up? En passant, of course. b4 would be a great retort if not for …axb3 ep. When you say you use ep in only 1/500 games, I’m sure you only mean you \*play \*it in 1 of 500. I bet it comes into consideration more than you realize. You are right that there is a standard manouvre in the King’s Indian where White has to play b3 first then a3 and finally b4 (losing one tempo) to avoid Black being able to use en passant. There’s also a line in the c3 Sicilian where White usually answers …d7-d5 with e5xd6 en passant. But there are hundreds of opening lines where no en passant occurs (or could occur). Note also that the King’s Indian capture is nowhere near the centre. I did indeed mean I play en passant about 1 in 500 games (that’s why I said ‘use’). So my point that ‘en passant doesn’t add much to a pawn’s value, and has nothing to do with capturing towards the centre’ stands. > [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I justify e.p. by saying that a pawn’s job is to watch over the other pawns. You can’t have passers, backwards pawns, good bishops, or open files without the enemy pawns being there too. A Rook’s job isn’t to watch pawns, though, so only the pawn gets the special privilege of taking ep. Nah. :o 1. A pawn’s job is to: - control the centre (because other pieces are more valuable) - protect the King (on the castled side) - support other pieces e.g. a knight in an outpost - set the structure of the game (so we know whether knights or bishops are better; whether to attack in the centre or down the wing; whether to exchange into an ending; whether to keep or exchange a bishop of a certain colour) - create passed pawns (not just in the ending; see a famous Spassky - Petrosian game with a passed d-pawn early on…) 1. “You can’t have passers, backwards pawns, good bishops, or open files without the enemy pawns being there too” is **completely** wrong! :smack: (You can’t have passed pawns if blocking enemy pawns are present; you can’t have open files if any pawn is present; you can have a backward pawn with no enemy pawn anywhere near it and the good bishop is determined by your pawns, not your opponents.) 2. In a Rook and pawn ending, particularly with only a few pawns left, the Rook’s main job is to watch enemy pawns (with a side order of keeping the enemy King out of play) ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/38 "2008-11-18T17:03:49Z")
> [@glee](#): > > You are right that there is a standard manouvre in the King’s Indian where White has to play b3 first then a3 and finally b4 (losing one tempo) to avoid Black being able to use en passant. > There’s also a line in the c3 Sicilian where White usually answers …d7-d5 with e5xd6 en passant. > But there are hundreds of opening lines where no en passant occurs (or could occur). > > Note also that the King’s Indian capture is nowhere near the centre. > > I did indeed mean I play en passant about 1 in 500 games (that’s why I said ‘use’). > So my point that ‘en passant doesn’t add much to a pawn’s value, and has nothing to do with capturing towards the centre’ stands. > > Nah. :o > > 1. A pawn’s job is to: > > - control the centre (because other pieces are more valuable) > - protect the King (on the castled side) > - support other pieces e.g. a knight in an outpost > - set the structure of the game (so we know whether knights or bishops are better; whether to attack in the centre or down the wing; whether to exchange into an ending; whether to keep or exchange a bishop of a certain colour) > - create passed pawns (not just in the ending; see a famous Spassky - Petrosian game with a passed d-pawn early on…) > > 1. “You can’t have passers, backwards pawns, good bishops, or open files without the enemy pawns being there too” is **completely** wrong! :smack: > (You can’t have passed pawns if blocking enemy pawns are present; you can’t have open files if any pawn is present; you can have a backward pawn with no enemy pawn anywhere near it and the good bishop is determined by your pawns, not your opponents.) > > 2. In a Rook and pawn ending, particularly with only a few pawns left, the Rook’s main job is to watch enemy pawns (with a side order of keeping the enemy King out of play) Pawns are the soul of chess. -Philidor ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/39 "2008-11-18T17:52:50Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Caxton actually doesn’t mention en passant at all (which suggests that it postdates him) or game theory (which postdates him by almost 500 years). The book also was written before the queen’s and bishop’s power was increased. The Dovble-Pawn mowe hight ywis broken. Yffe they hath not fixed thys in the next patche, i shalle quitte. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782/40 "2008-11-18T20:11:23Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > The Dovble-Pawn mowe hight ywis broken. Yffe they hath not fixed thys in the next patche, i shalle quitte. And knockketh the chesse boyard off yhe tayble splaying the peple and nobles upon yhe floore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-why-can-only-pawns-capture-en-passant/472782.md?page=3)