Congratulations on reaching National Master. I remember it was only last year you was still Expert Level. Thank you for your great content on the Hippo defense. Much appreciated. Continued success hope you go for your IM.
Thank you for that Joe! Appreciate your support along the journey. And ya I'm not sure what my next goals are for competitive chess besides playing in a Las Vegas tournament soon (U2300 section) but I appreciate that! Hope you've been well brotha.
Another great presentation. Your enthusiasm for the Hippo is greater than those preaching the bible, those calling for world peace, and those calling for justice in the world. I imagine many watching your videos who don't know chess will learn the moves just in order to play the Hippo 😊
Yup! I accidentally released this before the one yesterday which was the "82nd," but all that to say ya we got way too many on here. Hope to hit 100 soon.
3rd game, I'd play Kf8.. then Kg8.. Kh7.. Rf8 Or just f5... (edited this after I saw you played it, but it's def one of the moves I was thinking about. I play it often in positions like this)
Love it! Yep, that king walk is often a great idea! I just get a little concerned if the light square bishop is aimed right towards my king along with other pieces of theirs. How do you usually navigate this? The king walk or queen to the corner idea are both useful, but I'll be honest in that I don't use them very much.
If the base pawn is backwards, then yes!!!! Sure, there are some exceptions, but usually a backwards base pawn should just stay put. I mean, what do we gain by letting the opponent break things open AND get a knew outpost? Hope this idea helps!
Excellent! "incremental moves"😊 Speaking of Master Class, check this out: Chess Dawg-Petrosian gives a Masterclass in Chess Strategy. 1961 game against Smyslov.
In the last position I've seen you play h5 and h4 to remove the knight on g3 then you could play Nf5 but i don't think it gets anywhere if white plays h4 himself. So maybe Nc4 which if taken, does open up the d file and bishops light sq diagnal but I can't see a way to fully make use of either. The black king isn't great there either. edited I've just seen, he let you do it. Even though I've seen it before I was still surprised.
Hey Tim! Some great questions/thoughts here! I actually do think h4 would have been a good try for him. Is the pawn on h4 undefended? Sure. But it also not currently attacked and it prevents a monstrous knight on f5 from entering the picture as that g3 knight can chill and wait. In terms of the black king, I think kb8 and rc8 are good moves to play, simply to tuck that king a bit and get the rook on the c file. At the right time, nc4 can be good for the reasons you mentioned. Although maybe with the pawn on h4 we can play Nf5 at somepoint still? We double up pawns and stuff but can then play Rg8 and Rg4, with a nice rook plant. If you look at the potential pawn breaks on queenside, it becomes hard for white to actually break it open. c4 (as an example) has two black pawns on it so ya white will have a hard time with that move. Anyways, hope this helps a little bit! I know it's hard over commenting to talk over a position like this but at the end of the day, black has more flexibility and possibilities here after e5 from white. White on the other hand, does not have much they can do besides try and hold on. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks, Solomon
Yeah I think although it's not so obvious to see getting control of the c file by shifting over the king and moving the rook over to c1 well, It just can't be wrong. Black is better. It feels wrong to rush the knight to f5 as our knight is much better and has more function. If I was white I'd be trying to play a4 and try and open the a file but it won't work so actually I don't see a good plan for white yet. I see lots of interesting ideas for black though. And white is already down on the clock... Having had a better look I can see that this is another Hippo hatchet job if I've ever seen one. And it's funny as it doesn't look that bad initally.
Many thanks for another great Hippo Masterclass, Solomon! 💪🏿🦛 One of the charms of the Hippo is that in order to win, you don't always need a concrete plan -- you can play slow, improving moves while your opponent struggles to crack it. That, and gaining space is usually a snap with our pawns in excellent positions to advance. Not to mention how aggressive it can be when the opportunity presents itself. The list goes on and on!
@@TheChessGiant From whites perspective they can literally play their normal opening. I've played against the Italian, the modern, the London, Jobava London, QG, the Bird. The list goes on. From my perspective that's how I keep Hippo theory in my head.
