How to counter pure pawn openings?

Hello,

I have a very basic question. How do I react best on such pure pawn openings? I am playing black here.

To be honest, I find this way of opening very lame and artificial, I don't think it's going to work against any decent player. Looking at it later, I thought I might have d-stacked aswell, just like he did. But that's not my style of play, I want to play proper chess.

The game per se has no meaning, it was a bad match and I don't like Blitz either :P

Many thanks for every help!

In my opinion you have to be patient as in the game and "sit" on the position till the cramped side makes a mistake...Having said that as white or black I like a three pawn c/d/e (Averbakh) centre against the Hippo or in this case the "reverse" Hippo...The Hippo is reckoned by some to be playable against a two pawn centre and Boris Spassky amongst others has ventured it.

Without looking at the game too closely white made a mistake by playing a4 , breaking his Hippo formation, which you seem to punish at first.

Taking the b-Pawn with 22. ... Qxb4 was quite unnecessary, and only opened lines for White's desperate counter-attack. You were already a piece up. What was wrong with 22. ... Qd4 instead, killing his counter-play?

Not specific to your game, but the general idea of what to do when your opponent plays the Hippo, which I have done in the past ONLY with Black and ONLY if White has played Bc4 or a4.  Those that try to play it as White, or in essence, play it against everything, can be punished with correct play.

The main idea:

With White trying to play a reversed hippo, White advances all of his pawns except the c-pawn and f-pawn 1 square each.  Fianchetto both Bishops, and develop the Knights to e2 and d2.  This is his basic idea no matter what Black does.

Black should develop classically.  Don't fianchetto the Bishops.  Don't hold back the central pawns.  Make sure d5 and e5 are played.  DEVELOP ALL PIECES.  Do not try to rush the attack.  Patience is REQUIRED!

Black's basic idea is to find the right time to break with d5 or e5.  If Black puts a Knight on c6 or f6, this often becomes available as then Black can't close the center.

As someone mentioned already, a 3-pawn center often works against the Hippo, and is the reason why Black usually doesn't play it unless White commits to the 2-pawn center and throws out either the a-pawn or the Bishop to c4.  The reason for this is let's say you have pawns on c5, d5, and e5, and you play e4, then White can't just close up shop because after he advances d4, you can trade with your c-pawn.  Again, all pieces must be properly placed first.

Always watch out for a very common motif in the form of sacrificing a pawn.  If you advance e4 or d4 as Black at a time that White can't block the center, if he tries to exchange pawns, DO NOT TAKE BACK!  ADVANCE THE OTHER PAWN!!.  For example, let's just say it happens on move 27, and you start with the d-pawn.  A very common idea is 27...d4 28.exd4 e4!  This is especially true if the King is still in the center.  Often in the Hippo, the side playing the Hippo doesn't want to commit his King too early.  So a broken open center often means a weak King!

Most games where the player opposing the Hippo wins tend to be games of over 50 moves.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-always-open-to-feedback-that-i-can-get-defensiv,36671/

You didn't lose this game because of your opening. You lost it because you continued to snatch Pawns even after you had established a clearly won game.

Once you have an obvious winning advantage, start looking for the clearest and safest way to bring the point home. Sometimes this will mean grabbing more material. More often, it will mean suppressing your opponent's counter-play, so that he no longer has any way to turn the position around.

Wow, thanks a lot for the many good commentaries and advice! I guess I'll have to learn to look deeper into this game than I originally thought I could/should.

Your commentaries gave me some good hints on what to focus, thank you for taking the time to check the game out.

And yes, I used to have a slight advantage, but then 2 things happened: 1st I started running out of time, and 2nd I was a bit annoyed because of this opponents' opening, which I had never seen before and found pretty lame. So I desperately tried to do SOMETHING. Also I don't think I'm aware of having had such a clearly winning position as BlueEmu said. I'll have to check it, thank you very much for your concrete hints!

Blitz isn't really my thing, I think you need to know the openings way better than I do to be able to play Blitz at a decent level. Until then, I'll stick to normal chess ;)

One very basic hint - if he insists on advancing most of his pawns, the more backward ones will always tend to be weak, and the chances are, he'll overlook one of them. This is what happened on move 15, when his d pawn was suddenly yours for the taking (...Qxd3, which more importantly breaks open his position and gives you possession of the now open file), which you unfortunately missed. So every time he moves a pawn, look and see if he's weakened another one by doing so, and whether you can take advantage. Otherwise - loads of good advice above!