The Hippopotamus Defence is considered a bad opening by many, others haven't heard of it. The Hippo Defence involves g6, Bg7, d6, e6, Ne7, Nd7, b6, Bb7, O-O and relies on white trying to break through with e4 or d5 before black. It does not matter too much what white plays. It is a counter attacking opening where, if white breaks with d5 black plays e5 and plays for f5. If e5, black plays d5 and c5. I'm actually taking up this opening here on Chess.com, just for fun and trying something new. If anyone would like to play a game as white against my Hippo, feel free to send me a challenge. We can talk while playing, or if anyone has actually played this opening as black I would like to see a game.

It's a great opening if you are playing an aggressive opponent because, as it's designed for counter-attacking, but against passive opponents it usually leads to boring, drawn games, the kind of games that make you wish you never played the Hippo Defense.

Here's a recent non-boring game

Well, I dont know much abt this opening, but Gonnosuke strikes a strong point here with that game there. But I'll research a bit more on this opening and see all sides of it

I tried it a few times. I lost both tragically. They were blitz so I couldnt concentrate though. If you want to see just how bad the last one was go on my live chess games. :(