Me personally, I don't really like the hippo for white, as for black it is more easily transposable to something like the king's Indian. In general black's hippo will be more versatile, but that's just my opinion. I have played a grand total of one hippo game with white, and somewhere upwards of 70 with black. I think it's a great opening, and it is often mistaken for being passive while it actually sets up strong attacking possibilities for the middlegame. This is a textbook example of a hypermodern opening, which lets white have the center for free while you prepare something on your end. Check out the YouTube channel "The Chess Giant", where the hippo got this guy all the way to NM rank, playing it exclusively as white and black. Again, I think it's a really solid opening, and it's pretty much all I play as black now.
The hippo!
Sort:
I will check out that channel
Dec 10, 2024
0
#44
Hippo plays better as Black. If you need a win with White there are better openings.
The thing with these openings is that they don't work often