I finally came across the hippo during an OTB tournament last week. I was white and i won (because my opponent made a horrible blunder) but i was quite impressed with the system itself. I've tried it a few times as black during live rapid games and managed to play it successfully.
Is there any move order preference for playing the hippo, and is it a good idea to play it as white as well?
Some advantages i have come across with hippo:
- No need to study much theory, just the key ideas
- Easy to remember
- Efficient in fast time controls
- Psychologically powerful - it frustrates the opponent by either tempt him into attacking too early or confuse with the variety of moves he can play where it is hard to know which is best.
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2019.07.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "jeet-kune-do"]
[Black "Poradnik"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1858"]
[BlackElo "1906"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[TimeControl "600"]
[WhiteClock "0:05:53"]
[BlackClock "0:03:56"]
1. g3 {0} e6 {1} 2. Bg2 {3} d5 {1} 3. d3 {4} Nf6 {2} 4. Nd2 {3} Bb4 {5} 5. a3 {
3} Ba5 {2} 6. h3 {13} c5 {14} 7. e3 {3} Nc6 {4} 8. Ne2 {3} Bd7 {22} 9. b3 {3}
Bc7 {8} 10. Bb2 {4} O-O {25} 11. O-O {3} Be8 {15} 12. c4 {33} b6 {22} 13. e4 {
13} dxe4 {11} 14. Nxe4 {5} Nxe4 {5} 15. dxe4 {3} Be5 {12} 16. Qc2 {7} Nd4 {6}
17. Nxd4 {3} cxd4 {7} 18. f4 {6} d3 {10} 19. Qd2 {13} Bxb2 {3} 20. Qxb2 {1} Qe7
{28} 21. Rad1 {9} Rd8 {2} 22. Kh2 {3} Bc6 {25} 23. Rd2 {9} f5 {18} 24. e5 {11}
Bxg2 {19} 25. Kxg2 {3} Qc5 {12} 26. Rf3 {16} Qc6 {35} 27. Qc3 {4} Qc5 {6} 28.
b4 {4} Qc6 {6} 29. Rdxd3 {2} Rd7 {11} 30. Rxd7 {5} Qxd7 {1} 31. Rd3 {2} Qc6+ {2
} 32. Kg1 {6} Qe4 {13} 33. Qd4 {10} Qe1+ {9} 34. Kg2 {3} Qe2+ {2} 35. Kg1 {8}
Qe1+ {2} 36. Kh2 {27} Qe2+ {2} 37. Kg1 {2} Qe1+ {Game drawn by repetition}
1/2-1/2