MPPSC 2018 Prelims Q47: 'En Passant' is related to which

Q: What is the answer to MPPSC 2018 Prelims Q47?

D. Correct — D, Chess. 'En passant' (French for 'in passing') is a special pawn-capture rule in chess: when a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square — but only on the very next move, or the right is lost.

MPPSC 2018 Prelims Paper-I · Question 47 of 100

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official MPPSC answer key.

'En Passant' is related to which game?

(a)Billiards
(b)Snooker
(c)Carrom
(d)Chess

Answer

Why

Correct — D, Chess. 'En passant' (French for 'in passing') is a special pawn-capture rule in chess: when a pawn advances two squares from its starting position and lands directly beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square — but only on the very next move, or the right is lost.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Billiards — A cue sport; its vocabulary is 'cannon', 'pot', 'break' and 'in-off' — there is no 'en passant' move.
(b)Snooker — Another cue sport, played with reds and colours; terms are 'frame', 'break', 'pot' and 'snooker' — not 'en passant'.
(c)Carrom — A striker-and-coins board game; its terms are 'striker', 'queen' and 'pocket' — 'en passant' does not belong to it.

Concept

Chess has three 'special' moves beyond normal piece movement: castling (king and rook), pawn promotion (a pawn reaching the last rank), and en passant (a one-time diagonal pawn capture). En passant exists so that a pawn cannot use its two-square first move to slip safely past an adjacent enemy pawn.

The French name tempts you toward a European cue sport, but 'en passant' is squarely a chess term. Whenever a question pairs a foreign-language term with a game, anchor it to the sport where it is actually a rule — here, chess.

Key facts

'En passant' is French for 'in passing'.
Only pawns can make or be captured by an en passant move.
It is allowed only immediately after the enemy pawn's two-square advance.
The capturing pawn moves diagonally to the square the enemy pawn skipped over.

Study next

Special moves in chess: castling and pawn promotionFIDE and the World Chess ChampionshipIndian chess: Viswanathan Anand and D. Gukesh'Term to sport' general-knowledge matchingTerminology of cue sports (billiards, snooker)

Common traps

Letting the French name pull you toward a European cue sport
Confusing cue-sport jargon (cannon, break, pot) with chess terms

Almost always a 'which term belongs to which game' one-liner in state PCS papers — lock 'en passant / castling' to chess.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following is a special move in the game of chess?
- (a)Castling
- (b)Cannon
- (c)In-off
- (d)Cueing
Answer(a) Castling — a combined king-and-rook move.
practice — not a real PYQ
In chess, 'castling' involves which two pieces?
- (a)King and Queen
- (b)King and Rook
- (c)King and Bishop
- (d)Two Rooks
Answer(b) King and Rook.