SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 5 of 99

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following is true about "en passant" in chess?

(a)Only after a pawn moves two squares and waits a turn.
(b)Can be done within two moves after the pawn's advance.
(c)Must be done immediately after the pawn moves two squares.
(d)Only if the capturing pawn is on a dark square.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Under the FIDE Laws of Chess (Article 3.7.3), a pawn standing beside an enemy pawn that has just advanced two squares from its starting square may capture it as though it had moved one square.

The Laws add that this capture is legal only on the move following that advance. Wait a move and the right is lost → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Only after a pawn moves two squares and waits a turn. — Waiting a turn forfeits the capture. FIDE allows en passant only on the move immediately after the two-square advance.
(b)
Can be done within two moves after the pawn's advance. — 'Within two moves' is too late. The capture must come on the very next move or not at all.
(d)
Only if the capturing pawn is on a dark square. — FIDE's rule is about rank and file: the capturing pawn stands on the same rank, on an adjacent file. The colour of the square plays no part.

Concept

A pawn's first move may be one or two squares. The two-square move could let it slip past an enemy pawn that would have captured it had it moved one.

En passant, French for 'in passing', closes that gap. The enemy pawn captures it as though it had moved one square, landing on the square it skipped.

The right lasts for that single move.

En passant is optional: the Laws say the pawn may capture. What cannot happen is a delay, since the right expires after one move.

Key facts

En passant: a pawn beside an enemy pawn that has just advanced two squares may capture it as though it had moved one (FIDE Laws, Article 3.7.3.1).
The capture is legal only on the move immediately following the advance (Article 3.7.3.2).
A pawn reaching the far rank must be exchanged for a queen, rook, bishop or knight of its colour (Article 3.7.3.3).

Study next

Castling and its conditions under the FIDE LawsPawn promotion and underpromotionCheck, checkmate and stalemate

Common traps

Knowing en passant is optional and assuming it can wait. You may decline it, but you cannot delay it.
Applying it to any pawn that ends up beside yours. The enemy pawn must have just advanced two squares from its starting square.

Here a chess rule is tested through four versions of its timing. Other pawn rules are keyed at 19 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.8 (promotion) and 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.12 (the piece that moves only forward to the square in front of it).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.