Pawn Storm!

When I first started playing chess, my favorite strategy was to wait until my opponent castles, and then castle on the opposite side and start a pawn storm!  It was exactly what I liked about chess. This way of playing would promise a very exciting game regardless of the result! I don't remember exactly where I learned this strategy, but maybe the next game gave me some ideas. It was a very important game as White was in a must win situation to qualify for the Candidates Matches:

White's beautiful attack made this line of play extremely popular and even today this particular variation is a major headache for Najdorf Sicilian players!

Or maybe I fell in love with this primitive, but powerful strategy after I found the following triplets in one of the first chess books I read (it was called "In the Fire of an Attack" by Mikhail Tal):

Now you can imagine how thrilled I was after finishing the next game played in the Soviet National Junior Championship:

As years passed, I got stronger and more experienced and so now I know that you cannot apply this strategy in every position.  And yet, when a proper situation arises, the pawn storm is still my favorite chess weapon! The following game was played in the US Championship and got a brilliancy prize:

This article is intended for less experienced chess players and explains the basic strategy of a pawn storm when kings are castled on opposite sides. My advice for amateur club players is to try to follow this simple strategy from my childhood. Just like myself at some point you'll learn that you cannot castle on the opposite side blindly just to start a pawn storm. In certain situations your opponent can just crush you in the center before you even start your attack, or maybe their attack against your King is much faster and more powerful. But the most important thing is that you'll learn a lot about attack, defense, and tactics. And of course you are going to have a lot of fun in the process!

To learn more about Pawn Storms, click here!