Castling, promotion and en passantThree rules nobody guesses on their own: castling shelters the king, a pawn becomes a queen on the last rank, and en passant stops a pawn from slipping past.

CASTLING is the only move in chess that moves two pieces at once. The king goes two squares towards a rook, and the rook hops to the other side of him. It gets the king out of the middle (where the fight happens) and brings the rook into the game. Castle towards the rook on h1: take the king from e1 to g1.

PROMOTION is the reason pawns matter. A pawn reaching the last rank becomes another piece on the spot, and you choose which — almost always a queen, because she is the strongest. Take the pawn from a7 to a8.

EN PASSANT is the strangest rule in chess, and it exists for a fair reason. Remember a pawn may move two squares on its first move? Black just did that: their pawn went from d7 straight to d5, walking right past d6 — which your pawn on e5 attacks. Without this rule the black pawn would dodge the capture just by moving fast. So chess allows it: your pawn captures as if it had stopped on d6.

Capture the black pawn en passant: take your pawn from e5 to d6, the square it walked past. You can only do this NOW — play anything else and the chance is gone for good.

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