I see your point, they play move like h6 a6 g6 in the initial phase. I have been through this as well and can say i have not conpletely cracked the way to play but I know that I have a good position and better pieces. Sometimes you can just sacirifice a pawn to get open position where you will have pieces developed and he will not . There must be weak squares you can put your pieces on in opponents camp.
I usually analyse games if I lose such a game so I try not to repeat it.
So, there's three things to keep in mind, I think, when dealing with these types of pawn advances:
(1) They aren't easy to deal with. Yes, they lead to your opponent being in a worse position. But, they're still not easy to deal with. You still need to look at what these pawns are doing, you need to look at what the pieces behind them are targeting, and you still need to be careful.
But one solid way to deal with this is to develop all your pieces to good squares, tuck your king away, and then break open the position.
(2) Every pawn advance leaves a weakness behind it. When somebody plays in this style, the weaknesses those pawns leave behind can become too much to deal with. So, for example, in this position:
White has advanced the kingside pawns so far that there's a weakness on f5 that is very difficult for white to deal with. The only pawn move that deals with the weakness on f5 is e4 -- but if white ever plays e4, black can play ...dxe4. So, you should consider rerouting your knight to take advantage of this weakness. Hence, this knight maneuver, ...Nc6-e7-f5.
These sorts of weaknesses will crop up, and it's up for you to find ways for your pieces to take advantage of them.
(3) Another way to deal with this is to break open the position at some point. You likely will have your pieces better positioned than your opponent, so once the position breaks open, your pieces will be ready to pounce in a way that your opponent's pieces will not. Just so that you get an idea of what this looks like:
Notice how black, in this sample line, takes the time to continue developing, castles, gets the king safe, watches out for tactics, takes advantage of all the weaknesses that white's pawns leave behind, and then breaks in the center. Now, you and your opponent won't play with the sort of accuracy as this sample line demonstrates, but this should show you kind of the general ideas of how to deal with this type of pawn storm.
I hope this at least gives you a couple ideas so that when you see this next time, you've got a bit more of an idea!
One thing to keep in mind is that when a pawn is pushed, the squares directly beside it are weakened
Yes pawn moves beyond 2-3 in the opening phase are generally bad and can be taken advantage of.
You have to develop an eagle's eye to spot the weaknesses that arise. Calculate several lines and see if you can spot not just a few connections, but all connections in a position, and go 3-4 moves down if it seems you are improving your position with a candidate move.
It's all about developing mental acuity. And some point you will simply 'see' (with the mind's eye) when an opponent has blundered to a weak position. In that example game, you were winning most of the time and not just by a bit.
If you opponents pushing flank pawns push in the centre, if you opponent plays in the centre, undermine the centre with you flank pawns like pushing c5 for example. Exploit weak squares if you opponent puts all there pawn on light squares then your going to want to keep your dark square bishop and look to trade theirs for your knight... all this advice you will get will be very situational based...every position can be unique and require a certain idea...looking at a position and coming up with a good short or long term plan takes time. Play around with stockfish and try and understand some of the moves its recommending. Try and study pawn endgames, Sam shankland wrote a book called " small steps to giant improvement" its all based on pawn structure....it may be a bit advanced for you but i think it will serve a good long term understanding on these types of weaknesses your talking about. Best of luck..
haha as a teen I called it the annoying pawn walk and used it against poor players who had no idea what to do. Worst case you can usually sac a piece and clean house on the messed up pawns, but best is to force a central pawn trade to break the chain apart in the middle. block movement with your own pawn on one of the 4 center files, then move next to it where you can take or be taken (with some way to take back if they do) and the foolishness pretty much has to stop there.
The biggest mistake (sorta) that gets you into this mess (vulnerable to it) is not pushing a couple of pawns 2 moves towards the 4 center files in your first 4 or 5 moves. Holding back, like trying to play the french or something against this idea, and you can get into trouble fast if you don't know what to do about the pawns.
Pawn Storm is when they advance with a group of pawns towards your position. Otherwise they are just taking space as you retreat your more valuable pieces. One thing you have to think of before placing a piece somewhere is what do you intend to do if it is attacked by a pawn. If you dont know then move pieces elsewhere or break up the pawn advances with your own pawns.
To deal with "pawn spam" for myself dealing with the problem I usually try to reach my pawns to the opposite side of my board, I then click on the rook option instead of a queens. It may seem odd that I ask for a rook instead of a queen but just trust me. Thank you for reading my suggestion kind people.
We begginers suffer with this strategy. Specially in blitz and bullets games, I think the correct thing to do is not to panic and try to get a better and better position to a point the opponent will have to compromise and than tatics will appear.
pawn spam go brrr, i love punishing people who bring both of their knights and all of their advanced pieces out, as more often then not, theyll be forced to choose between a bishop or a knight over my pawn
Pawn moves are not developing moves and each pawn move leaves weaknesses.
Here is an example of how to punish it.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008397
Develop your pieces (including your pawn defenses) and don't ignore opponent pawns that get past the 5th rank.
The history of the thread:
1. A confused opening post
2. A few answers, some bad, some good.
3. Almost 2 years of silence
4. The thread is resurrected by a spammer saying something barely intelligible.
5. People swarm to answer 2 year old posts like there's no tomorrow.
Hi guys.
I've been playing chess for over two months now, I am not the greatest player but I managed to go from starting at 350 to around 920, but one thing I cannot understand is how to deal with "pawn spam" (I have no idea whats the correct name for this because I cannot find it anywhere online which is why I ask here)
basically my opponent will just play a pawn, after a pawn, and so on and so on and so on until the end of time. I try to develop naturally, and stockfish obviously gives me a massive eval for the first few turns, but then I just cant find a way in- everything is somehow perfectly protected and connected and if I move a single thing I will just get a negative material trade and lose that way, and then I end up autopiloting because there is not a single meaningful move I can make until I blunder something and lose. Here's my latest game against this as an example:
https://www.chess.com/game/live/48610246951