En passant love letter

"Alright, how about a new challenge to rally the views?" Harumi suggested.

"What'll it be?" Iori asked.

"Hmm, let's turn to chat... Got one! In 14 moves, get an en passant checkmate as White on the king's side."

"Any idea how to do that?" Carol asked.

"Start with the basics," Iori shrugged as she opened the game by moving her pawn to e4.

Carol responded by moving her pawn to d6 as Iori followed up with pawn d4. E5 and knight f3 followed, but it was after bishop g4 that the girls really had to start brainstorming.

"Gotta be king's side... That means we gotta mate the king over on the a through e files," Iori frowned as she moved her knight to c3.

"In other words... Gotta clear that king's side no matter the cost," Carol grinned as she moved her queen to h4.

"Guess that means I need to set something up too," Iori grinned as she moved her knight to d5.

Carol nodded back and moved her knight to a6, allowing Iori to capture it with her bishop, which in turn was captured by Carol's b-pawn.

"Halfway there. That means you got 7 moves left to set me up," Iori stated as she moved her pawn to h3.

"Hmm, Should I castle- Nah, need the rook to block off the king... Guess we walking," Carol shrugged as she moved her king to d8.

With pawn b4 and king c8 in play, Iori needed just one more move to be fully set up, but decided to push back said move by a turn to capture the pawn at e5 with her d-pawn. Carol continued clearing the way by moving her bishop to e7, while Iori moved her rook to b1, now simply needing Carol to do things proper for the challenge to be complete. Carol's next move of knight f6, prompted Iori to capture said knight with her e-pawn, and to whistle at how things were going.

"Think we got this," Iori grinned as Carol moved her king to b8.

"Yup, it's move numba 12 now, and I just need to make two moves to set up the mate," Carol grinned back as Iori captured the bishop at e7 with her f-pawn.

All that was left now was for Carol to move her rook to c8, Iori to move her pawn to b5, and Carol to move her pawn to c5 before...

"EN PASSANT! CHECKMATE!" Iori jubilantly shouted as she performed en passant and captured the pawn at c5 with her b-pawn, winning the game. "Yo! Challenge complete!"

The full game:

White: Iori Ishikiridokoro (2504) Black: SPCM Himitsunoki (Carol Cooke) (1869)

1. e4 d6

2. d4 e5

3. Nf3 Bg4

4. Nc3 Qh4

5. Nd5 Na6

6. Bxa6 bxa6

7. h3 Kd8

8. b4 Kc8

9. dxe5 Be7

10. Rb1 Nf6

11. exf6 Kb8

12. fxe7 Rc8

13. b5 c5

14. bxc6#