Pawn storms

[metax]

My engine frequently recognizes king attacks of the opponent, especially pawn storms, very late. I'd like to add a recognition of pawn storms, but after a few tries on my own before a month or so I gave it up because there seemed to be no right value. Either the engine ignored pawn storms of the opponent as before, or it pushed all pawns forward to the opponent's king, thinking it had a huge advantage when the opponent could simply lock his king's position.
The chess programming wiki article about pawn storms contains nothing concrete. Could anyone give me a few ideas on how to implement this properly?

[bob]

My engine frequently recognizes king attacks of the opponent, especially pawn storms, very late. I'd like to add a recognition of pawn storms, but after a few tries on my own before a month or so I gave it up because there seemed to be no right value. Either the engine ignored pawn storms of the opponent as before, or it pushed all pawns forward to the opponent's king, thinking it had a huge advantage when the opponent could simply lock his king's position.
The chess programming wiki article about pawn storms contains nothing concrete. Could anyone give me a few ideas on how to implement this properly?

You have to be careful. Pawn storms are ultimately about opening files and/or diagonals to let heavy pieces attack the king. You need biggish bonuses for open files or diagonals that lead to the king, when you have pieces that can use those avenues to attack. You need smaller bonuses to encourage the pawn advances so that you can reach a position where you can force the position open. If the pawn advance scores get too large, you will let things get locked up because you get to keep the advanced pawns... It's a challenge.

[jwes]

My engine frequently recognizes king attacks of the opponent, especially pawn storms, very late. I'd like to add a recognition of pawn storms, but after a few tries on my own before a month or so I gave it up because there seemed to be no right value. Either the engine ignored pawn storms of the opponent as before, or it pushed all pawns forward to the opponent's king, thinking it had a huge advantage when the opponent could simply lock his king's position.
The chess programming wiki article about pawn storms contains nothing concrete. Could anyone give me a few ideas on how to implement this properly?

I think you could do something with pawn evals, e.g a king attack bonus for Ph5 v pg6 or Pg5 v ph6 and a penalty for Pg5h5 v pg7h7 or Pg5h6 v pg6h7 or Pg6h5 v pg7h6.

[jdart]

> If the pawn advance scores get too large, you will let things get locked up because you get to keep the advanced pawns... It's a challenge.

Yes. I have some modest bonuses for moving pawns forward in general and especially if they can attack something near the opposing King, plus some penalties for blocked pawns. But these are not very effective overall.