Illegal move in puzzle solution?

Playing my 3 allotted puzzles this morning. On one of them the "solution" required moving my pawn diagonally to an empty space to allow my queen to checkmate. I'm no chess expert but I'm pretty sure this is not a legal move. Are the puzzles being written by AI? (garbage in, garbage out). Even the analysis of the puzzle showed this to be the correct move. Unfortunately I could not find a way to identify this particular puzzle by name or number to report it to you.

Sounds like the puzzle featured the move "en passant." It is a legal chess move, but many beginners don't know about these "special moves" and assume it is a bug/glitch. It isn't. Chess has 3 "special moves." En passant is the only move in chess where the capturing lands on a different square than the captured; Castling is the only move in chess where two pieces move in one ply (ply is the term for one side's "move" so the first move of a chess game might be 1. e4 e5, but the first ply is 1. e4 and the second ply of the game is the other player playing 1...e5); Promotion is the last special move and the only move in chess in which the it can "transform" (promote) into a different piece).

https://www.chess.com/learn-how-to-play-chess

The move en passant is explained under the third section "Discover the Special Rules"

https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1022492

As others have said, it was en passant.

Thanks to all for your responses. It was not en passant unless there was an invisible piece on that square. New kind of puzzle? Guess where the invisible piece is?

No - the "accepted" move was clearly move pawn diagonally forward to the empty square which then allowed my queen to checkmate. There was no opposing pawn on that file for me to capture but not all pieces are on the board in the puzzles.

It's quite possible I am losing my mind but I'm hoping it is at least equally possible that there was a bug in the puzzle. I tried searching through my failed puzzles but could not find that one. Maybe I really am losing my mind....

Cheers!

It was en passant. Re-read how en passant works in the link I provided. en passant capture is NOT on the same square the pawn is at. It is a legal move. You just seem to have not known the specifics of how this chess move works.

holy hell

They also said there was no opposing pawn on that file for them to capture, not just on the specific square. My guess would be that it was en passant and they are mis-remembering the position, but if what they said is correct then it isn't en passant.

Post #4 @Martin_Stahl went through their recent puzzles and likely found the puzzle they were referring to and it is indeed en passant.

This is correct. I looked at the failed tactics and the one I linked was an en passant puzzle.

Thanks for that - I looked for it and didn't see it. OK, confirmed I must need new glasses.

Also managed to miss your earlier reply where you linked to it.

Learning chess is all about paying attention/noticing. Working on it!