You may not be the highest rated chess player, but I think you have the best personality of all the chess teachers out there. Kudos to you! You're intelligent, articulate, patient, good sense of humor and best of all, humble.
@@user-pv5jt8yq7j i played it in classical for quite some games now. Vs higher level opponents its quite stressfull so i switched recently to normal theory but its more solid than one might think
@@TheChessGiant have that with 1.e3 currently. You either get a Reversed French or transpose into Colle as white. As black 1.e6 with French and QGD is simple aswell. Super solid repertoire which has been serving me incredibly well..
Another banger video. I went from 800 to 1140 rating just from watching your videos and playing HiPPO . i do get trash talk from opponents when I play this opening. love that lol. Cheers brother
Thank you for all you do...I bought the Hippo course last year in Aug, I love it. Your Hippo course and GM Simon Williams course are constant recourses as I try to improve.
Thank YOU for following the content brotha and investing in the course. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Let me know how I can help as you continue to progress!
Thank you. Always loved hippos as one of my favourite animals, and this is an opening and system I'd love to learn. Will see about the course in time....
Many thanks for another great Hippo video Solomon! I finished the course a couple months ago and I must say, it's the *_best_* Hippo course I've seen so far! Of course, I still need to review it some more to get the most out of it, but it's a solid starting point and refresher for Hippo players everywhere! Highly recommended!
Just video. It's 10 videos (that go over 6 hours in total) with 22 PGNs to assist your studying of the course and the positions that arise. No move trainer, with the Hippo there isn't as much theory as there is middlegame strategy. But I did make a theory chapter with chapter 9.
NM Robert Ramirez (RobRam) that has been teaching the Pirc defense and Czech Pirc for years, now also plays the Hippopotamus defense a lot. And I have seen many other videos on your channel regarding the Pirc Defense. I thought that was interesting to note 😁
The Hippo is one a most elastic approach, many position can result from: hedgehog, kid - and any like ... duch, and/or all them mixed. The first drawback (for me): is SLOW, is like a vipera (who stand waithing on side of road to cach his prize - isn't my style), I preffer Scheweningen, Grunfeld, Nimzoindian (with black) and 1.e4 (Ruy Lopez, Scotch or open Sicilian -> with white) ... sometimes 1.Kc3, 1.d3, 1.c3, 1.g3. 1.Kf3, 1.e3 or 1.a3 not realy 1.b3 (but 1.Nf3 ... 2. b3 yes)
Dear Solomon, any oppening system recomendation, to play against absolutely anything black can play, but as strong as the hippo(besides the hippo itself lol) which offers the white pieces as many conditios to strive for the victory as the hippo? thanks in advance,your videos are amazing and I will son buy your complete course on the hippo,have been getting amazing results since i started following your tips on how to play this wonderful system.
After seeing a few videos for entertainment I just tried a couple of hippo games for the first time. Lost a bullet game on time but barely and in a very winning position, then very convincingly won a blitz game with my opponent down 2 minutes. I think I'll play this opening again 🤔
@@TheChessGiant pretty well, I just won a blitz game against someone more than 50% higher rated than me - resignation on move 18 after I trapped their queen, but engine said I had a big advantage from move 11. So far my biggest issue is I often forget to start a hippo because I have such a habit of e4/e5 :) Thanks!
Thank you for your videos!!! I have gone to the top 90% in my games, and everything is way easier to see... So, naturally, doing it so fast, in a week, I've been reported for cheating in Chess. Lol best thing to ever been accused of. THANK YOU!!!!! HAD to show, in ptp, that it really works. There's no cheating needed for it. It's not my fault, that they mess up their own and hate on this opening. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!! I'll be ready to go back to USCF, and give the GMS a run, and get MY OWN TITLE!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
Ayy glad to hear it brotha!!! That is great you are doing so well with it. It truly is a fantastic option no matter which color you are playing with. Keep it up and let me know how I can help 🦛🦛🦛🦛
hi solomon u know i love the content .. ive been struggling against on black against pawn storm on king side .. im looking through your series and i know you have covered it but if you have a link handy i would appreciate it but dont go out of your way! thank you again for all you do and happy hippo day!
Solomon, as you said in this video, Stockfish often rates the Hippo negatively in the opening. At what move number, do you find that it begins to make since to listen to Stockfish's evaluation of the position? 10? 12? (Assuming nothing crazy in the move order, of course.)
Ya maybe 10 or 12? The engine seems to start thinking the Hippo is actually okay lol. Of course the game review gives me 1-3 "mistakes" while getting there... but then the position is even.
@@TheChessGiant thanks maybe video how to improve at chess like training plan like what you did to get your title or smth also titled Tuesday competitive stuff but this time play other opening then hippo mix it up I think it will be good 💯
@TheChessGiant "The Hippo System" by Eric briffoz and Gary Gifford The book might be fine for someone more classically trained, but for a casual player like myself I find your content much more useful. The book is full of high level example games but is a lot of move notation and really requires you to have a board in front of you as you study the games. What I am looking for are the middle game positions to try to work into that provide good tactics...such as the rook a2/h2 slide the queen over for double ram video you recently did. More unique interesting positions that give you some potential advantage or tactic to play from moving into late game.
Question for you: You have over 3,000+ glorious hours of Hippo on RU-vid. What does your Hippo course offer that isn't available here? (and Thank You!)
Very engaging and at times hilarious I used to play hippo as a ten year old against a schoolteacher and occasionally go back now 50 years later Congratulations on the great content
Hey! There are a lot of things I could speak on which are different, but the main one being that the Hippo course is meant to take you from 0-100 in a very systematic fashion. The videos have little nuggest of knowledge but they might feel somewhat random. The course builds from nothing and keeps building systematically into more complicated topics. Hope this helps!
Have you covered the Sicilian Katalimov variation?? Just curious. Just recently started playing it and thought it was pretty interesting. Kinda reminded me of the Smith Morra Gambit, but a bit different. I usually don’t ever play the Sicilian as black bc…(religious and philosophical beliefs 🤫(I’m a nonconformist and hate everything popular, no matter what) but bc this was an unusual line of the Sicilian, I got interested…. 1.e4-c5 2.Nf3-b6(?!) I used it 10 times on my friends account against 10 2300+ to 2700- players and won 7 lost 2 and stalemated my own ass 1. It’s interesting but I have more favored openings. I might try this weird Hippo defense style you have, you got me curious here. It seems very risky to me though and (if I might say personally) amateurish, but I’ve never tried it, so I’ll try a few games and let you know how it goes 😬😬
I have not covered this!! In fact, I have never even heard of it. Crazy how many chess openings are out there. Thanks for putting this on my radar. And ya let me know how the Hippo goes for you!
Uh many like playing it with black more. (Probably because white often takes the center and this can sometimes make it even better for us). But really, with both sides we are doing the same exact thing.... except with white we get an extra tempo!
