My HIPPO COURSE:
Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Hippopotamus Defense… as Played by Ruslan Ponomariov!
There are many chess openings for black against e4 including the French Defense, Pirc Defense, Caro-Kann Defense, Sicilian Defense, Owen’s Defense, and Scandinavian Defense. Likewise, there are many good chess openings for black against d4 including the Nimzo-Indian Defense, Bogo-Indian Defense, Black Knights’ Tango, Old Benoni Defense, Grunfeld Defense, and many more. All of these are chess openings that we’ve covered on this channel, as they are top tier chess openings for black that can help you improve at chess. However, all of these require quite a bit of chess opening theory and can take some time to learn. Are you wanting to learn a top tier chess opening quickly? Do you want to have the same game plan no matter what your opponent plays? Today we cover the Hippopotamus Defense, which works against e4, d4, the King’s Indian Attack, English Opening, and many more. The Hippopotamus Defense is a great chess opening for black that will give you a solid chess opening setup to work with every single time. The Hippopotamus Defense is less about memorizing chess opening theory, but learning the chess opening strategy, chess opening principles, chess opening moves, and chess opening ideas. The Hippopotamus Defense is a good chess opening for beginners, and a good chess opening for intermediate players as well. We hope you enjoy this Hippopotamus Defense chess video!
Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Hippopotamus Defense!
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My 6+ Hour Hippo Course! https://thechessgiant.gumroad.com/l/hippopotamusdefensecourse
Awesome vid, Very interesting game. I used to play this myself with a lot of success. The reason I stopped is because some move orders can totally get you out in the open in an unfamiliar position if your opponent decides to be confrontational. Also something about the symmetry don't seem right. I still play it from time to time, when I feel like premoving my opening and still works like a charm. My general strat is to expand on the queenside forcing my opponent and actually tempting him to close it down before shifting all my focus to the kingside and launching kid type of attack or remaneuver my knights there trough the center and pressuring with minor pieces. This g5 followed by Ng4 idea, I haven't utilized yet because it tends to mess with my pawn breaks, but it's definitely worth investigation as it seems like a very potent strategy.
Thank you for posting this video. The Hippo setup is so simple and easy to achieve, but seeing GM level games applying the middlegame plans are essential to mastery. I've noticed that there are often transpositions involving the Modern Opening, yet I know little about the Modern, and apparently it is substantially different from the Pirc. This might be a good opening for you to cover.
Love it, more Hippo! I think part of the appeal of playing the Hippo is the psychological aspect. White players not familiar with this may have a false sense of security not realizing the potential energy on the Black side.
Sooo good, thank you!
how do u see all modern defense games by ruslan?
Hi – i love your channel and subscribed to it
who was ruslan playing when he won with the hippo defense please? do you know the opponent or the year or if it was blitz? ty!
all these videos have converted me to a hippo player, def one of my top openings now
Another superb analysis. Kudos and many thanks!
Nice!!!
The Hippo is truly an obssesion! Hope all is well with you, Solomon.