My HIPPO COURSE:
Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Hippopotamus Defense
Against the best chess openings for white, there are many strong chess openings for black such as the French Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Caro-Kann Defense, Sicilian Defense, Pirc Defense, King’s Indian Defense, Slav Defense, Nimzo-Indian Defense, Benko Gambit, etc. However, these chess openings are extremely popular and well known. How can we as black take white out of opening theory, while keeping the chess opening strategy at a high level? In today’s video, we cover the Hippopotamus Defense which works against any chess opening played by white including e4, d4, the English Opening, Bird’s Opening, King’s Indian Attack, etc. The Hippopotamus Defense includes black fianchettoing both bishops, and placing the knights directly in front of the king and queen. The Hippopotamus Defense may seem positional and drawish at first glance. However, I believe the Hippopotamus Defense to be a dangerous chess opening for black or white, as it holds a ton of potential for attacking chess. One advantage of this chess opening is that it doesn’t create any weaknesses in the position. In addition, the Hippopotamus Defense is extremely easy to learn, but is still a very good chess opening. Hippopotamus Defense keeps a high level of chess opening strategy, chess opening moves, chess opening theory, chess opening principles, chess opening tricks, chess opening traps, chess opening tips, and chess opening fundamentals. This is a very good chess opening for beginners and intermediate chess players. Chess moves, ideas, principles, strategy, tricks, lines, variations, tactics, secret checkmate strategy, fundamentals, theory, and traps are all important in chess openings, and the Hippopotamus Defense covers them all! The Hippopotamus Defense is one of the best chess openings for black, and best chess openings for white. Whether you are a chess beginner or a grandmaster, we hope you enjoy learning how to play the Hippopotamus Defense!
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There is a game of leela c 0. Where lc0 played hippo.
Even a 1600 like me can outstall a cheater with this
I heard this is good to use against chess cheaters. Cheers!
Nice work. How would this fair against a more attacking opening though. White is very slow in your example?
How tall is the chess giant?
how u only have 5.32k? woof woof! Bark!!
Playing a tournament rn.
Feels like my opponent is using an engine.
Hippo is good against cheaters, so thank you for this vid
Update:
My opponent got banned
Hey Solomon, could you consider making an additional video on the Hippo when white challenges our set up?
I would give all the cookies in my cookie jar if you would make a video on the Portuguese opening 1.e4 e5 2.Bb5
You would be the first person to have this opening up on YouTube!
I have been using this as a beginner/intermediate to switch it up from the Caro Kann and French and it has worked for me a lot. It's also very easy for me to play the move order and monitor so it saves me a bit more time while white is usually the one who has to think of how they are going to play against it. It also helps that not a lot of people at my rating seem to know this opening and because of those reasons I think this has become my favorite opening for black.
i was looking for this i thought it was called come gambit
The c in "fianchetto" is a hard k sound instead as far as I know. Thanks for the video on this opening, I became interested after Eric Rosen's "Don't mess with the hippo" video. 😀
You mention that the move order doesn’t matter but I have found if people come out with bishops early you can lose the centre if you do your fianchettos first. Also if you start a fianchetto and don’t finish it you can lose your rooks
Your voice over is top notch. Do you do twitch? Excellent content
You wanna know how to really play some hippo? add a kn delay in… odds are your opponent may be pushing pieces unfavorably towards their deaths. Which helps because in hippo I try to castle (rarely castle in hippo usually artificial castles) opposite. Then it becomes an exciting game of who can promote a queen first. Rarely in hippo is it about CM… it's about material and position. Once you land the epic queen kill or rook kill the rest begins to fall apart for the enemy.
This opening is total garbage
Great video, thanks!
At 9:59 is rook take b2 good coz bishop takes knight and fork queen and rook and can win a pawn
6.43 can the king long castle
Nimzo vs Hippo?
I’m just getting into chess and I’m intrigued with hippo as I signed up with club. Just studying now. Find this very useful
its crazy ive been playing this opening for months which i though i develoiped and didnt know it was an opening i feel smart now
Hey there ! The move order DOES matter in some specific situations.
A game i had which is VERY worth to study if you want to play the hippo:
1.e4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Bc4 a6 5.0-0 Nd7 6. Bxf7 !! wins on the spot because of me not playing e6 before Nd7.
A super important thing to know since it loses on the stop. General guideline i now follow is "e6 before Nd7" to prevent the bishop sacrifice.
I love the examples and explanations you made. This video helps me a lot in chess!
5:37 what i play ofton is queen f8 and after that pawn f5
Thank you
i'm not a high rated player ,but have played hundred's of hippo's . but i need to know why you would play …….Ne7 allowing white to play Bh6 ? please help me understand . thank you ! great video !
in Italian CH sounds like C so fianchetto sounds like fiancetto
@10:29 wouldn't it be better to take with bishop? Even if they push pawn to attack the queen you take the rook after they take your queen.
Thanks for the video. I personally have played the Hippo many times even against engines and have won plenty of games!
It's a great weapon against even those who are familiar with it because there really is no good reply to it. In the book by Alessio DeSantis he says that we should avoid playing the Hippo vs. the Four pawns attack, but I have even won games with that position as well… Against my engine !! I play with Chessmaster for PS2 and it's pretty tough. I have liked and subscribed. Again, thanks for sharing this amazing opening! Many people will benefit from it!
Interested in PRIVATE LESSONS with Solomon? Here's a link! https://www.thechessgiant.com/lessons
Huge Thumbs Up! Always so greatly enjoying your productions. Such a Series is so Outstanding. Thank You!! As Always, wishing Blessings your way from Oregon. … Mike.
Hi Solomon, what do you consider to be the best resources to learn the Hippo …. Other than your own videos of course😀
Solomon, in your explanations to the defense I wonder why you didn’t play …h6 to prevent Bh6 (later you even mentioned that …a6 and …h6 are often played in the hippo). Would you allow the exchange of bishops, and if yes, why?
Thanks for the great video!
I began to learn the hippo in Chessable, but there are a lot of deviations of the hippo setup, making quite challenging to learn the opening. It seems that the most challenging setup for white is d4 and c4, and not to put the queen and bishop at the same diagonal (to exchange on h6), as black can often gain the bishop pair.
This could be the best defense if the opponent is a chess cheater, since the computer might not know how to best respond and will simply make a bunch of neutral moves.
🦛
A favorite defense of Duncan Suttles
It's called Hippo but it feel like a snake coiled up ready to explode lol
Saw your gameplay video wrecking people with this opening and it got me curious :
– At the final position at 1:44, what do you recommend as a plan if White uses the Queen bishop battery to get the dark-squared bishop out?
Intuitively, I would want to push the pawns for a kingside pawn storm, castle queenside if necessary and start bringing my forces to that side. Is there a different/better way to proceed?
I would play h6 to prevent Bh6 good trading for white
that opening in bullwt is insane
GREAT TRUE STUFF AS ALWAYSA, YOUR CANADIAN RUSSIAN FAN
Hans favorite
Space invaders…
Stockfish says this wins 100% 💀
Thanx got this. I have a friend who loves this opening
Very interesting. I've been using the colle system for white and have been struggling to figure out something I like for black, and I'm definitely going to try this!
Curious how to react when white has his knight on f3, pawns on d4 and e4 and on his fourth move, he advances his e-pawn to e5. I have had this happen several times now—either with the e- or d-pawn.
I can't stop playing this def!! Lol!! Some figure it out, MOST dont!
Thanks maestro!
Love it. My new Way. Many thanks UK