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Step 4: Special Rules & Draws · about 25 min

En Passant

🖨 Worksheet🔑 Answer key🖨 Easy-reading worksheet

Goal: Kids can capture en passant and know it only works right away. (Skip it for the youngest beginners.)

You need: One board and a few pawns per pair

📖 Early readers: Fine to skip with early readers and come back later: it's rare in their games.

1 · Teach it (15 min)

Read these out loud, or put them in your own words. Show each board on screen or set it up on a demo board.

  1. 1.“Here's the strangest rule in chess. It's called en passant, French for 'in passing'. It's only about pawns.”

  2. 2.“Our pawn is on the fifth row. The black pawn next door jumps two squares, landing right beside ours, as if to sneak past.”

  3. 3.“We're allowed to capture it as if it had moved only one square. Our pawn moves diagonally to d6, and the black pawn on d5 comes off the board.”

  4. 4.“The catch: you must do it on your very next move. Wait one turn and the chance is gone forever.”

With younger kids: Skip this for most K–1 kids; they'll rarely see it. For grade 2, act it out with two kids as pawns walking past each other.
Watch for:
  • Trying it when the pawn moved only one square.
  • Trying it a move too late.
  • Forgetting to remove the captured pawn (it isn't on the square you land on).

2 · Play it: En Passant Hunt (10 min)

Set up: Each partner has 4 pawns. White pawns start on the 5th row, black pawns on their starting squares.

  1. Only pawns. Black moves first.
  2. Whenever a black pawn jumps two squares next to a white pawn, White may capture it en passant.
  3. The first pawn to reach the other side wins.
  4. Swap colors so everyone gets to capture en passant.

3 · Practice and pass check

On iPads, kids open Student → Step 4 → The Sneaky Pawn Capture. On paper, print the worksheet. A kid passes by getting 2 of 3 on the pass check. The pass code for this lesson is S4-L3-P9.

Practice (3) with answers

1.Black just moved d7 to d5. Capture it en passant. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: exd6

2.Black's last move was d6 to d5. Can White capture it en passant?

abcdefgh
  • Yes
  • ✓No, it only moved one square

3.Black just moved e7 to e5. Capture it en passant. Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: dxe6

Pass check (3) with answers

1.Black just moved d7 to d5. Capture it en passant. There are two ways! Draw an arrow or write the move.

abcdefgh

Move: cxd6 or exd6

2.When can you capture en passant?

  • Any time later in the game
  • ✓Only on the very next move

3.Which pieces can capture en passant?

  • ✓Only pawns
  • Any piece
  • Only knights

Topic order based on: Chess for Children, Part 3 (castling, promotion, en passant). All wording is original.