Hippo is sound, but passive.
You can play it as black against everything. You can also play it in reverse as white.
What to learn similar to the hippo
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Oct 11, 2023
0
#3
Old indian setup. Against e4 it is called “black lion defence”. It can be played either very positionally and defensively or very aggresively, depending on if you are castling or not
Oct 11, 2023
0
#4
Hi!
I agree Hyppo is playable but passive. Sometimes you can go this way - I do it myself too- but I would not recommend to do it always because you would not progress in your play. You also need to look for active plans, not just wait.
I would not say you change completely your repertoire, but instead I suggest you to try to play the most active variations: as black play the Modern, and as white the Nimzowisch-Larsen attack.
See my posts on these openings:
https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/opening-repertoire-the-modern-defense
https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/opening-repertoire-the-nimzowitsch-larsen-attack
Or when you feel to play more solid, use the Stonewall either as white or black.
Good luck!
Oct 11, 2023
0
#5
maafernan wrote:
Hi!
I agree Hyppo is playable but passive. Sometimes you can go this way - I do it myself too- but I would not recommend to do it always because you would not progress in your play. You also need to look for active plans, not just wait.
I would not say you change completely your repertoire, but instead I suggest you to try to play the most active variations: as black play the Modern, and as white the Nimzowisch-Larsen attack.
See my posts on these openings:
https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/opening-repertoire-the-modern-defense
https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/opening-repertoire-the-nimzowitsch-larsen-attack
Or when you feel to play more solid, use the Stonewall either as white or black.
Good luck!
Yo thanks man this looks really fun, I'll try it out
I think you could also play the caro as black against 1. e4, as it (in the classical variations) also has those nigh-impenetrable defenses where you can wait for your opponent to make a single mistake. However, it has a decent amount of theory, and white has ways to play more aggressively against it, like the advance (at our levels, by FAR the most common variation) and fantasy variation (probably the hardest variation to deal with if ya dont know what you are doing). However, Stonewall and modern are also VERY good and respectable openings. Just depends which you like most.
Also note that Im probably not the best source of information as another patzer, and also know that YOU DONT NEED TO MEMORIZE THE MOVES. Focus more on memorizing the concepts.
Hi, I float around a 700 most of the time, and I've been mostly playing the hippo (trying to integrate some modern, KID, and Perc in there too) if I'm black or stonewall and modern if I'm white. I do want to get better, but I never seem to have as much fun when I try more aggressive openings. I think I just love that feeling of "okay, let's see what you've got" and waiting for them to try to crack my defenses. Is there anything else in that vein that's a little bit more... sound?