Forced en passant?

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Kayd3nYT

lol

the joke just made the whole chess world go crazy

i usually say it as a joke: en passant is forced because it is cool

Markomenalan

I dont get the confusion here???

I just looked up the official FIDE rules for traditional chess and it clearly states that en passent is a forced move and must be played when offered.

jesuisme

@Markomenalan En Passant is NOT forced. Please see this comment: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/forced-en-passant#comment-73909111

Arisktotle

What happened to everyone seriously debating this position is that they confused it with another position (see diagram below). One could uphold the viewpoint that black can play e.p. and since it is the only move he can play, he has the duty to play it as we can see in the preceding discussion. The difference is of course incomplete information. You knew the double step pawn move was played in the first diagram and you don't know it in this one. You cannot decide the issue in the last diagram without history information. Which is the main reason why chess.com's puzzles always show you the last move. But no-one says you have to in your own puzzles. The alternative is to register the e.p. square when defining your puzzle but no-one sees that you did. Which means that solving the puzzle requires trying the en passant moves. In composition chess there is a standard convention which says that you are not allowed to play e.p. unless provable - but it is possible to adopt the opposite convention if you insist.

So it is not all that simple but I believe that the second scenario is on the mind of most of the commenters on the first one. And they are fundamentally different!

.

CoreyDevinPerich
If it’s the only legal move, then yes.
KieferSmith

In this example, en passant is only forced because there is no other legal move. There is a difference between this and a position where just because en passant is legal does not mean it is forced.

JealousFox00
GMdmitryduvanov wrote:

According to the official FIDE Handbook, en passant is a forced move, meaning that whenever an opportunity presents itself, a player MUST capture en passant.

where in the handbook does it state that, I just checked and couldn't find it anywhere

That said - it could be that you are following the joke of en passant being forced. but it is not as far as ive just read for this years FIDE handbook

philldesekai

I just wanna de achievement ☝️🤓

bald55

Unforced en passant

Forced en passant

BirthdayGambit738

You have to play en passant whenever you can just to show your opponent that you know the rule.

whyareallthenamestaken777

i once got a zugzwang leading to double en passant leading to mate in 3