Speaking of en passant

When was this rule introduced into the game? More importantly: why?

And then maybe somebody can explain the reason for the infield fly rule in baseball.

En passant was developed as a rule whenever they added the ability for a pawn to move 2 forward from their starting point.

They did so in order to answer those who thought it unfair that a pawn could simply skip an attacked square.

Or so I have heard.

Originally posted by Kunsoo
When was this rule introduced into the game? More importantly: why?

And then maybe somebody can explain the reason for the infield fly rule in baseball.

So the infielder can't drop the ball on purpose and get an easy double play. :-)

You'll rarely use it though. In all the competitions, I had only used it twice i think.

Originally posted by Kunsoo
[b]When was this rule introduced into the game? More importantly: why?

When chess was first invented (believed to be late sixth century A.D.)the pawn could move one square straight forward if that square was unoccupied, or could capture one square diagonally forward (these options are of course still available).
To speed the game up in the opening, the double square first move for pawns was introduced, (I think in the 12th or 13th century), but it was felt that this should not allow a pawn using the double move to
avoid a capture by an opposing pawn which was on it's own fifth rank. So the 'En Passant' capture was introduced some time later, (14th century?) to allow a capture as if the pawn had only moved one square, and since under the original laws it could have moved to it's fourth rank after a second move, this is why the capture is allowed only for one move. I hope this helps. I found it easy to remember this rather unusual law once I knew the reason for it.

I've made use of this rule quite a few times, it can be very effective. It's definately worth remembering.

Saying that, this is the only example I can find trawling through my recent games.

Game 3444667

23..c5 attacked my queen
24 dxc6 lead to the queen swap I was hoping for.

Originally posted by geepamoogle
En passant was developed as a rule whenever they added the ability for a pawn to move 2 forward from their starting point.

They did so in order to answer those who thought it unfair that a pawn could simply skip an attacked square.

Or so I have heard.

Yeah, but bishops, rooks, and queens can skip attacked squares. That seems even more unfair.

Originally posted by smrex13
So the infielder can't drop the ball on purpose and get an easy double play. :-)

Okay, that makes sense.

Originally posted by Essex 3
When chess was first invented (believed to be late sixth century A.D.)the pawn could move one square straight forward if that square was unoccupied, or could capture one square diagonally forward (these options are of course still available).
To speed the game up in the opening, the double square first move for pawns was introduced, (I think in the 12th or ...[text shortened]... is helps. I found it easy to remember this rather unusual law once I knew the reason for it.

So then the issue was some form of continuity?

Originally posted by Kunsoo
Yeah, but bishops, rooks, and queens can skip attacked squares. That seems even more unfair.

not really... consider the bishop an airplane, the rook artillery and the queen espionage... footsoldiers can't do much to stop them unless they are in the right place at the right time.

Originally posted by ChessJester
not really... consider the bishop an airplane, the rook artillery and the queen espionage... footsoldiers can't do much to stop them unless they are in the right place at the right time.

Well, shouldn't the two square pawn move be considered aerial troop transportation?

in the help forum-checkmate? not according to the computer!

has a good example