Weeks ago, my sister introduced chess rules to me and said there was some special rules about taking pawns. A pawn that just moved 2 squares can be taken as if it had just moved 1 square, which is called taking umpires on. I thought she made up the nonsense rule because she said that only "terrible and suspicious GMs" can take umpires on, and can't take later if they can't "spot it and take it right away".(These were obviously jokes) Also google of course gives no results and I've never seen any games that players can "take umpires on". But in my game today with "RomkaBL", my opponent actually played this kind of move, so it's obviously an actual rule. (Luckily the square was covered) So, is this just some special rule in casual/blitz/online chess or is it a general rule which just seldom, if ever, happens in all chess games?
Thanks!
Are you talking about en passant? It is in fact a rule in chess. See
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passantit happens all the time
it's en passant, and has been in effect only recently........... since 1500??? lol............. it, to my knowledge since i'm too lazy to look it up, it makes up for when they speeded up the game back in the renaissance, by letting the pawn jump the first two squares of it's journey, if desired... they may have changed queen or bishop moves too...not sure... it is probably the last real rule of chess that people learn.
there's so much confusion over chess rules, as many 'rules' are tournament rules, which require certain things - such as you are recording your game on paper, or tablet, etc...!!! the three position repeition rule is, afaik, a tournament rule, not a general chess rule... i could be wrong ---- again, too lazy to look it up. i teach chess, and if kids want to shove their pieces back and forth forever, i tell them i'll see them tomorrow, but otherwise maybe they shoud agree to a draw... lol
for instance, the 50 move rule is definitely a tournament rule ---- and slightly obscure...
guess your sister came up with the term umpires on. i've never heard anything like that.
That silly rule has been a fundamental part of chess for ages.
To clarify doublebonzai's point - the original rules only allowed pawns to move one square at all times. When they allowed pawns to move two squares from the second rank, they did not want to disadvantage opposing pawns on the third rank from preventing pawns from advancing.
Also keep in mind, you can only capture en passant on the move immediately following an opposing pawn's double move. After that, the rule doesn't apply.
Yes, it is called Umpires On. And if you are attacking the queen it is called Guarr Dee. If you can take the king then this is called Chuck Mait (you need to make wild ninja moves while saying it).
In addition to en passant there is also a special move called castling where your king moves two squares instead of one and takes the rook next to it.
