Hippopotamus Defense/system
10) Hippopotamus defense. A very different/unique opening in chess. If I could define it in one word it’d be lazy. In chess, serious players usually memorize 5,000 - 10,000+ opening lines(*line is a specific memorized move order in chess) in order to play the beginning stage of chess (the opening phase) perfectly. Yet with the hippopotamus defense, it is only ONE line. Basically, it's one setup regardless of what your opponent plays 98% of the time. If you are very curious, email me at lucasaweden@gmail.com or/and just look up ChessGiant on youtube, he is living proof that the hippo works even up to the NM (National Master) level. There are many different caveats and certain ways to play the hippo, but because of the space I have available on this webpage and beginner-level of the people reading this webpage I won’t go into in-depth detail. This opening is great for beginners because you avoid heavy opening theory and you won't lose in the first 12 moves. I highly recommend this for anyone. Although, like with most things in life, there are some cons. In this opening you basically play only on the third rank in the opening and in doing so you give your opponent a lot of space and usually your opponent will have a slightly better position out of the opening from around +0.5 to +1.2. I played this for a long time and it got me from 1600 - 2050 elo online until I realized that at one point my opponents know how to counter this and I have to move into something else. There is also something called the “super” hippopotamus where you push your f6 and c6 pawns and Qc7 after the setup. Notable users: GM Boris Spassky (yes a world champion played this…), IM Maximilian Ujtelky, GM Tony Miles. If you like to be lazy and don't like memorization and like decisive games and keeping your pieces on the board; this is for you.
