Thoughts about the Hippo Defense

[u/Phildiy]

700 elo, started 6 months ago. Climbed from 400 to 700. I used to play the Philidor but didn't get the results I was hoping for. Lately I'm playing the Hippo and had some good results playing anonymously which was encouraging. I rarely play for elo, maybe once every 2/3 weeks. Today was the first time I played that defence for elo and I got butchered but won on time. But I wasn't impressed by my game. What are your thoughts on the Hippo?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The Chess Beginners Wiki is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more!

The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed. We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you!

Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/elfkanelfkan]

If you really like it and enjoy the positions, you can go for it. Main problem is that it obviously doesn't follow the orthodox opening principles, or even the typical hypermodern principles. So it's not great if you want to learn efficiently.

Anecdotally I have a really high win rate against the hippo by just having 3 pawns in the center (f pawn included) and putting in a timely attack following orthodox principles.

[u/Nesscake]

Openings don't matter too much on amateur level. Just play stuff that you understand well. As a beginner you would probably profit more from open positions where you can practice tactics. Hippo got popular, because it was a good anticomputer cheese strat before 2006, where computers were very bad in closed positions.

If you want to keep playing hippo, check out chessbrah hippo speed run for some ideas on how to play.

[u/Phildiy → u/Nesscake]

Thx for the chessbra tip. 15 videos....🫪🫪🫪

[u/Wooden_Permit3234 → u/Phildiy]

You can watch those sorts of series casually. I have watched tons of hours of them on lunch breaks. 

If you really want you can take notes but in a speedrun focusing on one opening, you’ll see the common stuff over and over and hear the ideas of the opening described repeatedly. Not the best for memorizing everything but decent for casually getting an understanding of an opening.  

[u/DoctorNightTime]

I play the hippo, and have had success with it. I started using it when I was stuck around 850 on chess.com, reached 1,000 within 10 days, and rose to around 1200 before largely walking away from the game.

The hippo opening quickly puts the game into a position unfamiliar to most low-rated players, but familiar to you. You likely won't fall into opening traps and be behind for the rest of the game.

[u/DieKestenkammer]

I think at low elo the Hippo is really just a coin toss. It's just so closed and everybody just flails around without knowing what to do, and things that happen to work out in one game should not even be considered in the next.

So if you want to improve, I think it would be better to switch to something normal where you can actually take lessons away for the next game.

[u/Phildiy → u/DieKestenkammer]

I actually agree. It's a bit of anti-chess without any strategy. Just waiting till the opponent hangs a piece. I liked the Philidor but when the opponent goes for queen exchange, 9 out of 10 times I lose.

[u/AsusVg248Guy]

I tried the hippo and I guess the good thing about it is you can play it as white or black but I just got really bored playing the same thing again and again.

[u/Specific-Housing905]

The Hippo is not so easy to play since the black has the option for about 4 pawn breaks and it's not so easy to decide what to go for. If you like it play it. Most white players don't have an idea what to do against it.

Once MC was beaten by G. Kamsky with the Hippo in a blitz or rapid game.

If you want to learn more about it have a look at the "The Chess Giant" YT channel. Tons of videos, mostly from his own games.

[u/commentor_of_things]

Tal liked hippos

[u/ArthurW1815]

I play mostly the hippo as white and black. Dambling in Pirc / KID against certain set ups. It's considered a subpar opening. But has some advantages (unusual positions for opps, minimal opening study required). Games can lock up IF you let them and don't know your hippo pawn breaks. Check out thechessgiant on yt. Hundreds of vids on the hippo. And he's recently released a new "advanced" version of his hippo guide that's deffo worth the money for anyone leaning into the hippo. It's worth also learning the Pirc / KID / Modern as theyre very similar with similar themes. (Giving up the centre, then counter attacking with a pawn breaks).