How to Crack the Hippopatamus
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Was not after 10 f5 the move e5 for black the better try ?
It yet hold the position more closed and his king hopefully less vulnerable.
But playing as black the hippopotamus is of course asking for a lott of troubles.
WiebeLenstra
In the first game your 9.Ng5? gives up pawn without compensation:
9...Bxd4+ (instead of 9...e5?) 10.Kh1 Nc5 and White lacks pawn without serious chances to attack.
In the 2nd one Black had not to take on d4.
After 11...Nxf5! 12.Bxf5 (12.g4?? Bxd4+) exf5 13.Rxf5+ Kg8
Black has extra piece for a pawn and it`s not clear how White can continue attack as Black king seems to be safe.
Was not after 10 f5 the move e5 for black the better try ?
It yet hold the position more closed and his king hopefully less vulnerable.
Chess engine Houdini 1.5a gave the following evaluation.
{+- 1.91} 11. Bc4+ d5 12. exd5 Nxf5 13. g4
Rf8 14. gxf5 Kg8 15. dxe5 gxf5 16. e6 {+- 2.56}
This was still also bad for Black..
Best Regards
DarthMusashi
But playing as black the hippopotamus is of course asking for a lott of troubles.
WiebeLenstra
That is not necesarily true. If you master the Black side of the
Hippo and can play it very well you would avoid all kinds of
main line opening theory. You could still win with it however
you have to know its weaknesses so that you can compensate
for that weakness. Petrosian was not able to beat Spassky's
Hippo in 2 World Championship games.
Best Regards
DarthMusashi
Dear mrs. Pacifique and Darthmashi,
your comments and analysis as shown above make me clear that the question if the hippopotamus can be wrecked by an early sacrifice of a piece is at stake.
Still, from a practice point of view, a player must be aware that playing the hippopotamus needs a lot of knowledge how to defend as black your position in the beginning of the game. And the risk that someone has find it all out by his computerprogram and is playing a dangerous attack against which defending will be likely possible but extremely difficult.
Thank you for given me these new insights in chess.
WiebeLenstra
Very high standard chess games. Great.
Pacifique:
In the first game your 9.Ng5? gives up pawn without compensation
I reexmined the first game I posted and you are right, the move 9.Ng5
was an error. I analyzed the game again with Houdini 1.5a and found
that I could not get an effective attack after 9....Bxd4+ 10.Kh1 Nc5.
Obviously the move 9.Ng5 was an error. A better move was 9.Bc2
protecting the d pawn with the Q. Oh well, so much for speculation.
I had the best possible outcome to this game because my opponent
made more blunders than I did. But that is almost always the case.
As Lasker had once said, if you played the perfect game then the
game should be a draw.
Best Regards
DarthMusashi
DarthMusashi wrote:
Pacifique:
In the first game your 9.Ng5? gives up pawn without compensation
I reexmined the first game I posted and you are right, the move 9.Ng5
was an error.
Well, actually your computer examined it... 
AndyClifton wrote:
DarthMusashi wrote:
Pacifique:
In the first game your 9.Ng5? gives up pawn without compensation
I reexmined the first game I posted and you are right, the move 9.Ng5
was an error.
Well, actually your computer examined it...
It`s ok to use computer asisstance in your analysis until it`s not a game in progress.
Yes, I know. But I was giving credit where credit was due.
killjoy
Sacks that break a hippo's pawn structure, especially on the c and f files, are very effective if done properly-- i've had some humiliating losses due to this
Jan 17, 2022
0
#17
The easiest way to crack the Hippo is by facing a Hippo player who isn't very good.
Of course, that's true of any opening. 
How to Crack the Hippopatamus
The Hippopatamus has the pawn and piece configuration:
Black pawns at b6,d6,e6 & g6
Black Bishops at b7 and g7
Black Knights at d7 and e7
This setup is difficult to crack. Petrosian was not able
to crack the Hippo in his World Championship match with
Boris Spassky. Spassky drew 2 times with the Black side
of the Hippo.
For a short time I was also playing the Black side of the
Hippo. I had tested it in bltz games against Lloyd Kawamura (2400). Lloyd demonstrated to me
that you have to sacrifice early to crack the Hippo. In the
5 minute blitz game against me he sacrificed a N early in
the opening and my Hippo was on the run. I could not defend the Hippo. There are probably other wsys to crack the Hippo but this is only one way to crack the Hippo.
Below are 2 games against the Hippo where I did sac my N at f7 to defeat the Hippo. My opponents did not play the best moves, however I would have still gotten a very strong attack. See games below: Also attached is the pgn file Hippo Sampler.pgn.
[Event "ChessPlanet.ru"]
[Site "ChessPlanet.ru"]
[Date "2012.02.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "GodofThunder"]
[Black "VadimDavydov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "2008"]
[BlackElo "1953"]
[Annotator "Hippopatamus"]
[PlyCount "31"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
1. c4 e6 2. e4 d6 3. Nc3 b6 4. d4 Bb7 5. f4 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. Bd3 Nd7 8. O-O Ne7 9. Ng5 e5 10. Nxf7 Kxf7 11. fxe5+ Ke8 12. e6 Bxd4+ 13. Kh1 Ne5 14. Nd5 c6 15. Nf6+ Kf8 16. Bh6# 1-0
[Event "ChessPlanet.ru"]
[Site "ChessPlanet.ru"]
[Date "2012.03.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "GodofThunder"]
[Black "stlbree"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "2043"]
[BlackElo "2013"]
[Annotator "Hippopatamus ***"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
1. d4 e6 2. e4 g6 3. f4 Bg7 4. Nf3 d6 5. Bd3 b6 6. O-O Bb7 7. Nc3 Ne7 8. Ng5 h6 9. Nxf7 Kxf7 10. f5 exf5 11. exf5 Bxd4+ 12. Kh1 Kg7 13. f6+ Bxf6 14. Rxf6 Kxf6 15. Bd2 Kg7 16. Ne4 Nf5 17. Bc3+ Kh7 18. Nf6+ Kg7 19. Qg4 Rf8 20. Bxf5 Rxf6 21. Qxg6+ Kf8 22. Bxf6 1-0