Pawn Storm

A Pawn Storm is a chess term used to describe an offensive pawn tactic.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Kingside pawn storm

Design

In a pawn storm, you aggressively and continuously push all of your pawns on one side of the board in order to attack. The pawns will act as spears, deflectable and flimsy but also disposable and sharp. If your opponent has not defended that side well, you can cause chaos and rip open the position. It should be played quickly, to force your opponent to act fast and protect, else, your opponent will have time to move their queen and gobble everything. With a pawn storm you can often damage structure, attack a weakness, dominate the area, remove the king's defenses, or even promote a pawn!

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

White's king will be in danger of checkmate if white makes a king side pawn storm.

It is wise to think about your position and how it will change if you create a pawn storm. As a general rule, don't pawn storm where your king is and target a weakness in your opponent's position (like an opposing king). In the position on the right, you should not create a kingside pawn storm because that is where your king is. Pawn storming removes the main defenders of the king and you will be threatened by 1.Qh2# checkmate. That side is also well protected by the knights and it might also open up files for the rook, exacerbating the checkmate threat.