Can an elephant capture a piece two points diagonally away?
These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws and is regression-tested against the official 110-diagram repetition casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it against the engine before publishing.
Direct answer
Yes, on exactly the same terms it moves: two points diagonally, as long as the midpoint of that diagonal is empty. That midpoint is the elephant's eye. A piece sitting there, of either colour, blocks the whole diagonal; the elephant cannot capture past it any more than it can move past it.
The eye rule applies to captures too
It is easy to assume a blocking rule only stops quiet moves and that captures work differently, the way a cannon's capture rule differs from its move rule. The elephant has no such split: the eye blocks everything, capture included, with no exception.
A defensive trick that follows from this
Putting a piece, even a worthless one, on an enemy elephant's eye takes away that whole diagonal, including any capture the elephant might otherwise have made. It is a cheap way to neutralise an elephant that is defending a point you want to attack.
Related questions
Does the elephant capture the piece on its eye instead?
No. The eye piece is never itself captured by this move; it simply blocks the diagonal entirely.
Can an elephant ever capture across the river?
No. It can never cross the river, so nothing beyond it is ever reachable.
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