Lesson 5 Special Moves - Castling and En Passant

Castling is done in one move with two pieces moving at the same time. The reason for castling is to allow your King to get to a safe place behind the foot soldier Pawns. If you look at the Diagrams at your left, you will see White castling to the King side. Diagram 20 is the starting position for both Black and White to castle. Two rules for castling must be known. First, to castle, neither the Rook nor the King may have moved beforehand. Second, a King cannot castle through a piece of the opposite color’s area of attack. For example, if there were a Black Bishop on "e3," White could not castle in either direction. The square that he would land on, g1 or c1, would be attacked by the Bishop on e3.

   Diagrams 20/21 The King moves 2 Squares 

Diagram 22   The Rook lands next to the King. This is a King side castle.

   Diagrams 23/24 This a Queen side castle. 

En Passant

En Passant is the most difficult rule to understand for new players. It involves the capture of a Pawn that seemingly gets by another Pawn without conflict. Let’s look at Diagram 25. White wants to play a4. He will then beat the Black King to a8 and get promoted into a Queen. But, the Black "b" Pawn was not given the chance to do battle with the "a" Pawn. So after the move "a4," Black can play "b" Pawn captures "a" Pawn. But, only immediately after "a4" is played. The move looks like Diagram 26. Now the White King must race over to stop Black from promoting his Pawn to a Queen.

             Diagram 25           Diagram 26