Enjoyed Hippopotamus Defense Week!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear! The Hippopotamus Defense > Everything Else.

a master of ones passion is the best of teacher

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Thank you brotha!

I've been hungrily-hungrily consuming all of your hippo content for months! I love it, I've played it with white a few times too! It's so great. The best advantage for me, it keeps me calm and comfortable. Lately I've been trying not castling, ever. And then when the king is forced to move, it always works out to the hippo players advantage.

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Hey! Thanks a ton for watching the KZread videos on the hippo and I'm glad you're enjoying them. The hippo defense is a great system, and I second everything you said. Most underrated system out there in my opinion! 🦛🦛🦛🦛

Lovely "Finale!" An excellent collection of games-the second and third games were particularly helpfull. Thanks for the entire playlist which is always close at hand as a reference.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Thank you Michael! And you're very welcome!

@michaelallport5816

Жыл бұрын

@@TheChessGiant I hope all is well with you!

Learnt a lot from you reviewing club level games. Really good idea. Go Hippo!

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Thanks, glad to hear you learned something from the games! Go Hippo! 🦛🦛

rewatched many months later .. incredible insights

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Thanks a ton for that, glad you enjoyed it. Go Hippo 🦛🦛

Thanks for going over my game!! You comments on my game and all the others were very helpful. Thanks again and keep up the good work. Take Care & God Bless, Jim

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You're very welcome Jim! God bless you as well!

because to your great videos I started playing the Hippo. Having tons of fun so far 😃 thx Solomon

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Pumped to hear this! The Hippo is a great system!! You got it man, and keep it up! 🦛🦛🦛🦛

thank you for hippo week, it was a joy

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!!

Hippo - game of two halves. First half, opponent doesn’t know what to do. Second half, opponent gets his butt kick… generally speaking. Love it.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

That's right! Don't forget part 3 when they start playing the Hippo themselves! 😂

Solomon, I just want to say thank you. I love your videos! Particularly your hippo videos. So I've toyed with the hippo before but I didn't study it properly, made mistakes, lost confidence and ditched it. After watching loads of your videos, I've come back to it, and I'm loving it and am doing well! I love your 'first 4 moves' instructions, your encouragement to shut down White's LSB by playing e6; and I really love watching you play, and you analysing your games and club player games, like in this video. I'm never going to be a master, just hopefully a good-ish club player so non-master games are most instructive. I really want to support you, so will now set up a patreon account. I will almost certainly buy your course soon too! I've only played the English as White for over a year and have had great success. But I've very recently started the Hippo as white and it's going well! Actually there are a lot of similarities between the English and the Hippo. But I'm seriously thinking about commiting to the Hippo as black and now white too. Watch your videos over and over, and then have more time for tactics and endgames study. So, please please please do more on the hippo. And more on the hippo as white! You're doing a fantastic job, and I want to say a big big thank you! Best wishes, Daniel

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Hey Daniel! Thanks so much for the encouragement brotha, appreciate it a ton. Truly humbled. Thanks for all the support. And thanks for asking about more white Hippo videos. I actually have one of those dropping soon! (Just a tournament game I played as white with the Hippo recently) Thanks again, best wishes to you as well. Don't be afraid to reach out! Here to help!

@Daniel-G-P

Жыл бұрын

@@TheChessGiant You are so welcome. Your teaching is fantastic!

Here I am!

@elephantheart9988

Жыл бұрын

Great ideas with the earlier f5 / c5 to break the 3 pawn center! I was nervous about the Knight xb5 hitting the Rook, but definitely didn't see that attacking idea after. Geeze! thanks so much for covering this. If there's a lesson for me to take from it, it's: don't stop calculating early just because it looks bad in the next few moves.

@elephantheart9988

Жыл бұрын

The position where I locked it down with c6 was very complicated. I do remember game review calling it a blunder, which was upsetting since I could've sworn it was the only move. Ha

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You got it!! Glad you enjoyed this!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Totally. And ya you finding a flank pawn vs 3 pawn center is a great approach for the Hippopotamus Defense player!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

That's always tough!

Great stuff Solomon! Thanks!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

Thanks for the Hippo week! Very instructive. Hippo is OP. Suddenly I found myself comfortable in closed positions. Waiting for the next lessons!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You're very welcome! The Hippo is a cheat code!

Love the Hungry Hippo stuff man. I hope to see more Hippos played in the highest level.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

The Hippo is a cheat code! And yessir, same here! Good to see GM Eric Hansen rocking with it!

I wish every Hippo enjoyer a very pleasant evening

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You as well my friend!

I enjoyed Hippo Week, thank you Solomon. I started playing it this week. Win&Loss 1&0 as white, 3&4 as black, but I think I have those black move order kinks worked out now. Going to give myself a Hippo Week to get comfortable with it. Great content.. Cheers, JF

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Let me know how I can help your progress, and keep it up!

I bought your course and like it. I watch it on my iPad as streaming that you provide, but wonder about the downloads so I could watch it on my laptop. The links look different from the links other channels provide .

@TheChessGiant

3 ай бұрын

Hmmm are the downloads not working? Feel free to email me at "thechessgiant@gmail.com" so we can get this worked out!

I used to only play the london. but it was slow and i was not winning alot of games. As i am around 1400 i have now been playing the hippo defense...my win rate is going up since playing this opening, had no idea it was so effective. 😉

@TheChessGiant

4 ай бұрын

Love to hear it!! The Hippo is a very strong option whether you are black white OR black! And it's also nice because every day you can go in your skills with the Hippo, and soon it will be your 1000th time playing it as your opponent will at the same time not even know what it is. Preparation goes a long way in addition to comfortability. Keep it up! 🦛🦛🦛🦛

I know you said you’re done with Hippo videos (at least for now), but if you’ll indulge a selfish request… You should make a video showing examples of Hippo positions immediately before they enter the four plans. Ask the viewer which plan should be used, then explain which one is correct, and why. You could even make it a game where we keep score and see how many we get right! In any case, thanks for all the great hippo content 👍🏻

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

LOVE THIS IDEA! Just took a picture of this!

Hi Solomon, big fan of your channel, especially all the Hippo content. It took me a while to get the Hippo working but I finally got a really crushing win with it. I was wondering if you could review it or share with fellow Hippo players? It's a 5+3 Lichess Blitz game rated around 1350. No worries if you are too busy,, just wanted to say the Hippo is working and it can be an absolute beast.

@TheChessGiant

10 ай бұрын

Thank you! I appreciate that! And are you asking me if I can review a game of yours?

15:54 i think i moved my queen there just thinking to take the pinned pawn with my a pawn to let my battery in and i completely forgot that my queen was defending my own knight lol. it worked out anyways since i had so much firepower anyways thanks for the analysis and hippo week, learnt a lot from it.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Totally! And ya you got it! Glad to help. I wouldn't have said this at the time, but more Hippo on the way!

Thank you

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

Can you make a video on the Grand Prix Attack Bc4 variations? Your existing video only covers the lines where white trades the bishop for the knight by playing Bb5.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Hey Jake! Good to hear from you, thanks for putting this on my radar!

As you know I bought your course and am enjoying it a lot. You know what I'd love to see you do next? A video discussing some of Eric Hansen's games in his recent Hippo Speedrun. It's great to see a top GM executing hippo ideas. I guess even you will learn some ideas from his videos since he is one of the elite chess players in the world so it would be cool to catch that on camera and see what ideas he gives you and how you may implement them. Eric mostly doesn't explain much but just crushes opponents with some gentle techno music as a backdrop, so your commentary would be immense for us noobs. It'll be even more interesting when he gets to a higher rating as currently he is punishing blunders in the 1400-1500 range.

@barrymcgregor6233

Жыл бұрын

Hi Joe can you tell me if you need a computer/laptop for the Hippo course? I use an IPad not sure if that is any good for it or the PGN?

@joegreenwood86

Жыл бұрын

@@barrymcgregor6233 I haven't tried the PGNs but the videos just stream on the browser so should be fine on an iPad. You can get PGN software for an iPad I'm sure. Enjoyed the videos and just won an over the board game playing the hippo. Lost another to someone much higher rated but that was a miscalculation rather than a bad opening. I was doing well out of the opening with the kingside pawn attack. Overall it's nice to play in a slow game because you get a big time advantage getting all the way to the hippo setup while they ponder every move.

@barrymcgregor6233

Жыл бұрын

@@joegreenwood86 Thanks very much Joe for taking time out to reply much appreciated am not very savvy with technology😂will check it out that’s good your getting on with the Hippo a bet the course is brilliant Solomons content on it is fantastic.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear this Joe! Here's some things you can do (in no particular order) 1. I would say you should play some Hippo games yourself, and maybe get a coach that knows the Hippo that can help you through it! (You can also plug it into engine although engines aren't always helpful with the Hippo in my personal experience. You will have to take the early "best moves" with a grain of salt.) I am available for coaching and I'm sure there's others who can help you as well. Maybe even hit up a friend who is slightly better and see what they think! 2. Keep watching Hippo content on KZread! You can rewatch videos, and eat up the new ones that come out! Ya Eric is coming out with some great content, super happy to see him adding to the Hippo community!

People really forget about my bishops and blunder their rook lol🤣

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Yup! 😂

Hi how are you, love your videos on the Hippo opening. I tried it out in my last league game but I played a fatal error in F4 and then position fell apart. I was just wondering if you were available to go through the game with me for some advice on where I go wrong. Might be a bit of a long shot but just thought I'd ask.

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Hey! Thanks brotha, glad to hear you're enjoying the KZread hippo vids! I'm assuming you mean what to do if your opponent goes with a d4/e4/f4 setup? The video below should give you some ideas to work with! (Was a game I played against the setup.) kzread.info/dash/bejne/dn-AvM-umLLIe6g.html Let me know if you have any further questions or thoughts! Thanks, Solomon 🦛🦛🦛🦛

Hey Solomon, what is hippo response against the 4 pawn attack followed by flank?

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Hey I covered this in my online course on the Hippopotamus Defense! However, I would type out by saying that you want to pinpoint whether e4 or d4 is weak, and then go from there. A common idea is to play Nf6 attacking the pawn on e4 with your bishop on b7 as well. If white advances, we can play Ng4 (often attacking a bishop on e3) followed by Nf5/dxe5 ideas looking to chip away at that center. This can be done on the other side of the board as well with Nc6 and Nb4. Just depends on the pawn structure + placement of white's bishops. There are other ideas you can go with but this is my favorite and the one I look to the most. I try to encourage white to push the e or d pawns at the right moment because it simple weakens squares and diagonals. White can continue to push like crazy, but eventually there will be cracks in the wall that start to form. That is what the Hippopotamus Defense player wants to go for there.

@raiedfadhil6248

Жыл бұрын

@@TheChessGiant I will practice on this variation, very grateful for your reply and great ideas. Thanks ☺️

Man when you getting your NM title

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Hopefully soon! Although I'm not playing in tournaments super frequently though. Next one is in late May.

Crazy game! Real slugfest

@TheChessGiant

4 ай бұрын

Those who say the Hippo is "timid" and "too slow" and "a waste of time" are simply incorrect!

@user-kh6xl4yg1j

4 ай бұрын

@@TheChessGiantChess engines don’t give the first few moves of any opening, like the Hippo, that gives up central space the highest marks. HOWEVER, when the Hippo middle game kicks in the evaluations swing more in the Hippo’s favor & the most critical positions get very complicated requiring strong nerves, good positional understanding & deep tactical calculation. As daunting as that sounds, such will make anyone’s chess well rounded & a better player… & with relatively few exceptions one does not need to memorize variations, unlike other defenses where theory can go quite deep into the middle & even the endgame. How many chess players truly enjoy chess as a memory contest? I for one don’t. I doubt many others do either. Playing the Hippo will make you a better chess player overall & while you will have to understand how to counteract certain set ups by white you will generally be free of having to memorize reams of variations & enjoy playing chess were each player is duking it out on their own resources. For me the Hippo has made chess fun again. Of course, there’s a learning curves especially against 3 pawn set ups… i.e., c4, d4, & e4 or d4, e4 & f4, as well as d4, e4, f3 (as a prelude to setting up a Be3/Qd2 battery) .. but these can be studied & neutralized. Solomon’s aka ChessGiant’s Hippo defense course will go a long way in this regard. To all interested I wholeheartedly & enthusiastically recommend it. Indeed, I now enjoy playing the Hippo set up both as White & Black (tho in bullet & blitz I play other openings too for variety). Give the Hippo a whirl! Cheers!

Hey soloman please make a video on the scheveningen sicilian. Love from India

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

I'll keep this in mind going forward! WIll probably be awhile until I do a long Sicilian Defense series but when I do, I'll make sure to touch on this! Love from the US

Magnus and Hikaru would have found the line with pawn check i feel in classical setting

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Ya for sure. They're both a cheat code.

Have looked but cannot see how to sign up for the Hippo class. What to do?

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Did you try clicking on the link below?

@jamesreed4483

Жыл бұрын

@@TheChessGiant I do not see a link below. Could be that my iPad is not showing the link? IPads do not work like a normal computer. I do not know.

@jamesreed4483

Жыл бұрын

@@TheChessGiant ok got it. Had to click on “more” then the link showed up in the side bar.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

thechessgiant.gumroad.com/l/hippopotamusdefensecourse

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

@@jamesreed4483 Ah cool glad you found it. I also dropped the link in another response to your comment.

This comment/question is regarding your Hippo course. I'm really interested in it, but 22 PGN's doesn't sound like it would be very comprehensive - especially for $90, compared to what I get on Chessable for that $, for example. Like how many PGN's do you have for playing against the London? Please assure me that those 22 PGN's will be all that I need, and I'll seriously consider buying your course. Thanks.

@TheChessGiant

8 ай бұрын

Hey! Hope you're well man. I mean there's a ton of lines/games/etc on there. And to be honest, you don't really need to memorize much for the Hippo. I do dedicate a chapter to things we need to memorize, but most of the course is focused on the middlegame and what to do when that point is reached. The hippo is a middlegame focused system, not looking to win outright in the first 10 moves, but gain positional leverage and use those attacking chances to convert later on in the game. It's a "slow burn" system but the results can be fantastic if played correctly. Anyways, if you get the course I hope it meets your expectations! Thanks, and keep it up Solomon 🦛🦛🦛🦛

You know what's better than the Hippo???? Answer: the GROB

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

WOAH WOAH WOAH

Club games or lower-rated players. Yes, better to understand and to avoid making mistakes. Top GMs have different ideas that we mortals do not understand.

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Agreed! Studying at a wide range of levels is helpful!

🦛

@TheChessGiant

4 ай бұрын

🦛🦛

Dude cant even count to sunday

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

Accidentally dropped 2 in one day 😭

Alekhine week!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

This could be fun!!

noooo keep the hipo hype

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

As you may have seen in the last video, I brough it back!

Thanks for the great Hippo Week, Solomon! 🦛♥ It's been great watching these great games and lessons with everybody!

@TheChessGiant

Жыл бұрын

You got it! Thanks a ton for tuning into it!