I have seen few times, masters use their f,g,h pawn to attack opponent's king (even if the player castled kingside). Whenever I see a weak position of king, I suspect, king is "under attack" (not now, but sooner it will be). What's the philosophy behind the attack?
My thought process :
- Center has to be closed (closed-center favors the attackers. In one of my Magnus's game, his opponent started attacking with pawn storm and center was closed so Magnus, at first, started opening up the center then attack, nonetheless he lost. In that game, they castled opposite side. Magnus queenside and opponent kingside. I am not that professional to memorize the whole game neither I don't remember when it was played, perhaps recently).
- Opponent's attacking piece should be on the opposite side.
- Player's minor piece will defend the king and pawns will attack the opponent king.
(After writing the question, I remembered another thought process, but I didn't have time to open up the site)
- When player puts a bishop on b2 or g2 square (b7 or g7 from black's perspective), they can throw their pawns. Opponent most of the time tries to exchange the bishop, to weaken the bishop's square (In Silman's book, he even mentioned to trade the bishop unless sometimes, it might be stuck by tall pawn). (I generally don't put my bishop there and I try to open up the file for rook by throwing only f pawn, g and h pawn forever remains there until endgame)
Is there anything else, I have to keep in when attacking with pawns? Even when Stockfish says to use pawn storms to attack the opponent king, I just scare that king is open.
I remember once, (I was much more weak player that time, around 1100 in chess.com), I used my pawns to attack the king while weakening my king. But the opponent managed to close the kingside then started attacking on queenside, I had huge advantage for advanced pawn but I lost, cause I was scared of my weaken king and opponent managed to hunt my weak king, even I tried to won the game (when the eval dropped-down to equal), that's why I just lost.