How do you deal with a pawn storm?

Use an umbrella.

The best way to deal with pawn storms against humans is to ignore them, unless they contain a specific threat. 

Oh no, Silman recipes no please...

Umbrellas!








Just kidding. About two years ago, I was playing the French Defense against a young National Master. He threw his pawns at my king, and I threw mine at his. His were arriving faster. As this was a correspondence game, I searched ChessBase for games with my kingside pawn structure and his. I went through about 100 French and Sicilian games to get a feel for the best defensive resources. In the end, my king found safety on f7 with pawns on g7, g6, and f5. His pieces were coming next, but first it was time to defend against my pawn storm. He should have moved his king to the d-file with an unclear position. Instead, he let his king get driven to a1. A rook sacrifice opened his king for checkmate.

6 year old topic.

 

just play better than your opponent. Just sayin'

Very old topic, but pretty important imo. 

A good general rule though is to evaluate the strength of an attack based on the possible threats you can generate. If the opponent, for instance, can close the side where his/her king is on against any pawn storm, and the pawns need to get out of the way for the pieces, the attack generally is non-existent. 

I had a somewhat recent game like that, where my opponent even saced a piece to open me up. However a pair of opposing pawns on g4 and g5 effectively made it impossible for his bishops to help, and the attack was an utter failure.

Another general idea is if their attack will be dangerous, you need to open lines somewhere else on the board to create counterplay, and if it's opposite side castling, you want your pawns to make contact first.

Open me up? That sounds agressive and dangerous for your health.

"However a pair of opposing pawns on g4 and g5..."

Thanks!! Really helpful, I can now imagine the whole position and it is sooo instructive.

You rock!!!

Oh gawwd, should not have drank that methylene blue...

That's the correct idea in theory, and in practice. 

The funny thing is, in my own OTB tournament games, I've yet to have to implement such a thing. I've been under serious pressure, where my opponents have had serious attacking chances, where every move I just have to defend against a new threat. In those 2 games, I just played very passively, my opponents (1800 and 2050 FIDE) eventually lost the attack, then blundered in the ensuing equal endgame, and so I won.

@cheplassyer Haha, so sarcastic.

Here's a position. Notice the sad state of affairs, black's blockaded pawns make his c8 and h6 pieces useless. Nf1-g3 is coming after which there will never be any attack.

 

The best stuff I've ever read about pawn attacks with opposite castling is in Keres & Kotov's The Art of the Middle Game.  Kotov wrote the 2nd chapter called "Strategy and Tactics of Attacks on the King" and it's 50 pages of stuff you'll remember.  The primary way to deal with a pawn attack is to NOT castle on opposite sides unless you have an overall edge in these three things:

1) Your storming pawns are closer to his K's defending pawns than his are to yours.

2) You have fewer pieces in front of your storming pawns than he does - so he has to waste time making room for the pawns.

3) You have fewer pieces in front of your defending pawns than he does - so he's losing tempi moving pieces away from the pawns.

If you have this game handy I'd like to see it.

That thing (should not be considered a position) is so messy I can not see it.

I thought your pawns were the one blocking, not his.

I was thinking about teaching you guys how chess is actually supposed to be played with one of my OTB games, but my fish are calling me for bed, sorry.

This is an analysis position from a real tournament game. As you can see, white expanded on the queenside and black attacked on the kingside KID style. Pretty normal stuff. Black saced a piece for two pawns, but the attack quickly fizzled out.

That one hit you right in the heart, I can feel it.

Share the whole game, come on, I only know about openings.