Teleports behind you katana man next to crying Crusader Chad with text 'Stop cheating!!! Google en passant'

En Passant

2016catchphraseclassic

Published October 15, 2026

En Passant / Google En Passant is a chess catchphrase that took off as new players kept calling the capture a cheat after a legal pawn move caught them off guard. One of the earliest documented 'Google en passant' replies showed up in a 2016 comment chain under a speed chess video, and the line hit its biggest moment in January 2023 after the official Chess.com Twitter account's followers voted it the top tip to give beginners.

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Overview

Sarcasm drives the whole exchange: a player complains that their opponent 'cheated' by taking a pawn that just moved two squares, and someone replies 'Google en passant' instead of actually explaining the rule. Typical posts show a screenshot or short clip of the losing position next to text accusing the opponent of hacking or a software glitch. Chess.com staff writer Erik gathered four real bug reports of this exact type in a 2018 article, including one from a confused player whose c7-to-c5 pawn was taken as if it had stopped on c61. Urban Dictionary defines the phrase as what 'goofy dumbasses' get told after they insist an en passant capture was an illegal move2.

Origin & Background

Platform
The Chive comments (earliest known use) / Chess.com and r/AnarchyChess (viral spread)
Date
2016

En passant is French for 'in passing' and lets a pawn that moves two squares from its starting rank be captured by an adjacent enemy pawn on the following turn, as if it had only advanced one square1. Chess has included the rule for roughly 400 years, making it the youngest move in the standard ruleset and one of the most confusing for new players3. Beginner tutorials rarely cover it, which is why online platforms kept getting player reports complaining that an opponent's pawn had somehow 'illegally' killed theirs1.

On general-interest sites, the catchphrase started appearing in the mid-2010s. One early documented use of 'Google en passant' showed up in a comment chain under a speed chess video posted to The Chive on January 22, 20163.

How It Spread

Chess.com staff writer Erik answered the ongoing stream of 'my pawn got hacked' tickets on September 17, 2018 with a post titled 'His Pawn Cheated And Killed My Pawn,' quoting four actual player complaints word for word and walking through what the rule does1. The article ran several en passant image macros alongside its explanations, giving the format an early home on the site itself.

The /r/AnarchyChess subreddit then adopted 'Google en passant' as its unofficial house catchphrase through the early 2020s. A February 21, 2022 POV meme by Redditor King-Doofy about a player's first time running into the rule became one of the subreddit's higher-upvoted posts that year3. On January 22, 2023, the official Chess.com Twitter account asked followers what one piece of advice they would give new players, and replies filled the thread with 'Google en passant' answers, sending the catchphrase back around chess social feeds3.

Timeline

2016-01-22

One of the earliest documented 'Google en passant' replies appears in a comment chain under a speed chess video on The Chive[3].

2018-09-17

Chess.com staff writer Erik publishes 'His Pawn Cheated And Killed My Pawn,' quoting four player bug reports and walking through the rule[1].

2022-02-21

Redditor King-Doofy posts a POV meme on /r/AnarchyChess about getting 'en passanted' for the first time, becoming one of the subreddit's higher-upvoted posts of the year[3].

2023-01-22

The official Chess.com Twitter account asks for beginner advice and replies swarm with 'Google en passant,' sparking a social media resurgence[3].

Frequently Asked Questions