HIPPO CHESS HELPS ME BREAK 2100ELO + EARN CANDIDATE MASTER TITLE! | 2022 Pacific Coast Open!

[@TheChessGiant]

My 6+ Hour Hippo Course! thechessgiant.gumroad.com/l/hippopotamusdefensecourse

[@michaelallport5816]

First of all, thanks for this wonderful hippopotamus playlist. As a pre-1848(i.e playing with time constraint is not an option) player who follows in the shadows of Nimzowitsch and Petrosian, I can give the counter balance to aggresive play. Perhaps, you know how the Hippopotamus was named as such. JC Thompson said the setup reminded him of hippo sleeping. There is a a wisdom from this observation in regards to the opening. The idea of resisting, impeding and blocking has a devastating effect on the other player. Modern players are obssesed with attacking, and anything that impedes this process leads to frustration and on to errors. The key is a calmness, patience and discipline t that right moments. Your style can continue on as it is in reality, and 'sand it down' to make it a bit smoother. Congrats on 2100. The Soviet School of Chess emphasized gaining a positional advantage in increments. It applies to your movement( not run) to becoming a NM. Continue playing well and it will take care of itself. Best of luck, Solomon. You're doing just fine.

[@michaelallport5816]

at the right moments:).

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Michael!

[@michaelallport5816]

@@TheChessGiant My pleasure, Solomon.

[@johnybalohny]

I loved this series. Not only is the Hippo my favorite opening, you also explained so much behind the ideas of all your moves, which is so helpful for a newer player like me, because there were so many threats and lines that I could not see. I'm glad you managed to get a new shiny new rating too. Well done all around, and thanks for beating people up with the Hippo :D

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Johny! Glad you enjoyed it and got something out of it! More Hippo content on the way!

[@FloatingSunfish]

Best Hippo Defense channel on KZbin, hands down! 😄👌 Looking forward to you reaching new heights with the Hippo, Solomon!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha!!

[@mikejay9838]

Hey thanks so much! Been watching you for years! I used to play the Hippo (Beginner's Game) exclusively, as it was promoted in a course by a guy who I think his name is Pafu(?). He did an excellent job of analyzing hundreds of variations by having the computer play against itself once the hippo was set up. Anyway, he pointed out several situations where we need to exercise prophylactic caution (which I notice that you do not do): 1) If a bishop is fully advanced in the field and the opposite side knight is naturally advanced, ALWAYS play immediately the knight-side wing pawn up one square. The reason for this (beside the fried liver type attack) is a sacrifice of a piece for for a pawn & a tremendous wrecking of the starting position, where bishop takes its target pawn and the base pawn must take back (thus having no natural defense) and now the knight advances forward targeting the undefended pawn and everything is falling apart for the hippo 2) Before opening the fianchetto, check to see if the same color opponent bishop has free scope/effect to attack by a full advance, either attacking the queen or the king and then attacking the rook before the bishop can advance. Like you have said moving the rook over one space is a solution but is not ideal. Anyway, I thought I would just mention those things since I knew about them. ;)

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Mike, good to hear from you and glad you liked the series! And thank you for those thoughts. Always helpful to get some new ideas into the toolbox!

[@skyeruddell3196]

Congratulations on CM. Nice finish on your hippo play tournament, well done.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks! NM next!

[@skyeruddell3196]

@@TheChessGiant let's go!

[@jarrodthekidder1]

Nice strong draw at the end of the day. Nice final score as well. Congrats on breaking 2100 bro. Lastly, appreciated the breakdown of this series as well. Thanks so much for your hard work man.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you my brotha!!

[@masterbeernuts9344]

Have only watched the last one, so pumped to watch the rest. Great video mate, love the commentary!!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you my brotha! And I hope you enjoy the series!

[@StudioVRM]

Congratulations CM Ruddell!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you bro!

[@dmr288]

Congratulations!! So excited to see more content!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Debra, more Hippopotamus Defense chess videos on the way!

[@SEAKPhotog]

Congrats on reaching 2100+! Definitely interested in following more of your tournament games. Your commentary is great. You've got me playing around with the Hippo and seeing how I get along with it. 😉 Oh, and pretty genius move fully embracing the Hippo - an unusual system out there in the chess KZbin world. Hippo speed run in the future?

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you my guy! And yes, Hippo speedrun coming soon!

[@nikhilr4525]

So proud of you my man! Excited to see you rise up even further and set new personal records!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Nikhil!

[@NMBrayanAmaya]

congrats on becoming a Candidate Master, you deserve it bro :)

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha!!

[@Grandcapi]

I discovered your channel today because of the Hippo. I play this sometimes (one of my games is in Alessio's book) and I think it interesting how you show your games and thoughts. Another good feature is that you do not mention computer analysis which is not always good, because we are humans and computers have no feelings (obviously) and cannot decide if a draw is the best result. Besides this knowing what a player was thinking is very instructive. Congrats from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil!

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey David, welcome to the channel! Oh wow... how'd that happen!? And glad you found the video interesting. More Hippo chess content on the way!

[@Grandcapi]

@@TheChessGiant It happened because of the Hippo! As I said in one of the videos one of my games was published in Alessio di Santis's book (most recent book about the Hippo. Since then I am following your channel. Congrats!

[@TheChessGiant]

@@Grandcapi Awesome, that's really cool. And thanks!

[@blantant]

enjoying all the hippo videos as always. Learning a lot hearing your thought process behind the moves. Congrats on 2100!

[@TheChessGiant]

You got it brotha, super glad you are finding the ideas helpful to you. And thanks!

[@banzaiburger]

Definitely more Hippo please. Also you need some Hippo merch.

[@TheChessGiant]

Yessir! And okay this is actually a good idea.

[@prakasavigraha6104]

Congrats Solomon. Good onya mate. Couldn't have happened to a better bloke!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha!

[@jonshive5482]

Congrats! My highest OTB rating was 2060 about 35 years ago. At that point I'd already reached a "plateau" (or "level of incompetence" [per Dr. Laurence Peter]) which Russian trainer Mark Dvoretsky wrote was the destination of most players. No amount of playing or studying could propel me any higher. By contrast you seem to be well on your way to achieving your goal of NM. Good luck and thanks for letting us into your Expert's Workshop. Cheers!

[@TheChessGiant]

Good for you! That's really high! And ya, I hope I can someday hit NM. That would be cool. Thanks for joining me on the journey there!

[@REKKnives]

Loved this series and you walking through the thought process man, thanks so much! I always struggle with figuring out how to think ahead and what their plan is so I can counter. You do a great job with that though!!

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey man, I'm glad you enjoyed the series! Was fun to make. Would love to do another one of these soon! Thanks, and wishing you a good week!

[@andrewcarter7503]

Really enjoyed this tournament. You mentioned how tiring OTB can be and having played plenty I can agree. Online, playing shorter time limits you're still trying to win but it doesn't seem to matter quite so much. You lose, there's another game immediately. OTB in a tournament you have to invest much more mentally and emotionally. You can be concentrating for an hour or two, all the time knowing one slip could waste all the good play. That's draining. And there's just something DIFFERENT being opposite your opponent in the flesh. Well played. You should be proud of the effort AND providing great honest analysis. 👍

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Andrew! Thanks for tuning into this series. Was super fun to make. And gosh, I couldn't agree more with your comment about OTB chess being DIFFERENT. Thanks for the great thoughts and encouragement, talk soon!

[@sweaterkev]

Dude, write a book. Ya gotta be on your toes but this opening rocks and you the only one putting it out there!congratulations on your goal and thank you

[@treborrelluf]

book..I've heard that word before somewhere. Just what is it?

[@sweaterkev]

@@treborrelluf "The total guide to the Hippo " book .....something that sits on your shelf for people to admire and one day soon your gonna get around to learning.

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Kevin! Thanks for this. Actually this could be a lot of fun, especially putting the Hippo on the map more. I will give this some thought!

[@nickgluciano]

Congrats on a great series and a great tournament!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Nick!

[@lennyuniverse]

Congrats! Turns out you are as excellent as a competitor as you are a coach 💪

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Sonny! Wishing you a good weekend!

[@alancoe1002]

You did it, Solomon! WAAY TO GOE!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Alan! Wishing you a good weekend!

[@paulvandervelden4087]

once again....nice explanations on both sides of the board

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks my guy! Glad you liked it.

[@mcronrn]

You’re an inspiration!! 👏👏👍🏽👍🏽

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha! Appreciate you. NM next!

[@SocialSophia]

*Question: What was the time format of this tournament?*

[@rayflutemakerman6094]

Congratulations Chess Giant.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Grandpa! Also, Flutemakerman is an awesome name!

[@TipsyFlipper]

This was a very exciting tourney! thank you for taking us on your adventure. Some times a draw is pretty baller when things go wrong and you fight for the draw. I think that accepting the draw from 100+ advantaged player is very nice and maybe some chivalry there. that Bishop to h3 idea at the end there looks interesting but it looks like he had even more drawish resources for it. Great game Great tournament!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Dwight!!

[@GarciaPics]

Keep it up. Good series.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Carlos!

[@kalistadrake5226]

Awesome series !! Thanks for sharing ! How about getting to 2200 with nothing but the "Giuoco Piano" or some other opening! In any case, keep up the great work!!

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Kalista, ya I'm looking to switch it up my next tournament. I've played the Hippo since playing this video and I'm getting a little worn out by it. I love the Hippo but it's hard to play it every game for tournaments straight. So I will look from white to openings like the Giuoco Piano and Snyder Variation. For black I will look to grow in my knowledge of the Benko Gambit and Sicilian Najdorf. Thanks!

[@mikestubbs1708]

Wow...nip & tuck giving you a locked-up position...but interesting indeed using the Hippo! And you got the higher rating too! Nice work! As an old chess player, [74!]. I would really like you to list all the moves of your games so I can copy them down...and go through them all later please [maybe with an ECO chess opening classification?] !

[@TheChessGiant]

Oh dang Mike, good on you for playing at 74 and staying mentally active! That's awesome. And that's a good idea to leave a link or something to the games - I will keep this in mind. I'm pretty busy but would love to get this done!

[@lionelbowhunter468]

Congrats Solomon!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Lionel, appreciate you! NM next!

[@edmundhilgen3795]

Thanks for sharing great hippo game and congrats for getting candidate master title.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Edmund, appreciat you and wishing you a good weekend!

[@hindifandubs]

Congratulations Bro. I love your Hippo videos. May god help you become GM Soon.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha!!

[@yesyes300]

Thank you for the game, and congratulations on getting CM

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Marcel! Was fun playing a couple games last night.

[@mikestubbs1708]

you may need to look at the game Maghsoodloo -Nakamura where Naka got done good & proper! I'd love to see your video on this one where you try to combat White's effort! cheers!

[@TheChessGiant]

Will do! Thanks Mike!

[@johnp845]

might be a dumb question, but can someone please tell me the difference between the Hippo and the Rat defenses ? thanks !

[@TheChessGiant]

The Hippo is a setup in which case we put all of our pieces on the first 3 ranks. The English Rat is when we play d6 and e5 against d4 and c4. I will post the following two videos just in case you want to check them out! English Rat Defense: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpzLaXuFnJWropI Hippopotamus Defense: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l56uipmlgr-Ggtk

[@m42orion12]

Catching up on your videos...Master!

[@TheChessGiant]

Glad you're liking the Hippo series!

[@m42orion12]

@@TheChessGiant Yes i must learn it more,at the min though im on a 3-4 month plan of my d4 repertoire actually writing into a physical book but i will fit it in after that.lots of gambits and theory but im sticking to it as my main as white,i grew up with spassky and found his games brilliant.

[@meiklaner8130]

Nice tourney & congrats on earning CM!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Meik! I appreciate that!

[@swinktackular]

I have such a hard time with the hippo. I started caro khan but by the time I get my hippo set up I get destroyed.

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Peter! Totally! What is your current rating? How do you feel about your current opening repertoire? The Hippo is definitely not for everyone!

[@TalesOfHeilotia]

Yeah man it was helpful go on im into hippo now!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Aivars! And nice!

[@darkenedblade2585]

More hippo please

[@TheChessGiant]

You got it!

[@elperro3683]

I have tried this with black several times, but I struggle when white advances one of his center pawns to the fifth rank. I lost two games like this.

[@banzaiburger]

CONGRATULATIONS! ✨✨✨

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Danny!

[@jaydub2971]

Congratulations on cracking 2100, Solomon.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks J Dub!

[@MrInalbert]

Congrats, solid Tournament. You mention that you´d like to achieve an NM title. The requirement for this is to reach 2200 elo right? Is this the same thing as CM title? its also 2200 elo.. because I try to reach that myself. Thanks CG, keep the great work up :)

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Lemon Shark, thanks bro. Ya so I believe CM can be earned once you pass 2000. However, it is norm-based. I've been over 2000 since 14 years old and just got CM from this tournament. I honestly don't know how the norms work but somehow this got me CM. NM on the other hand is just hitting 2200 and there are no norms or anything for it.

[@S4ndžaklija]

Congrats, Solomon! Great games! Isn't the CM title 2200 elo minimum?

[@TheChessGiant]

Ya so I think CM is a 2000ELO minimum but it is norm based. NM is simply ELO based and 2200 is the number. I've been over 2000 for a decade but somehow I earned a norm from this tournament. NM on the other hand is very simply, I just have to break that next tier. Glad you enjoyed the series!

[@gboundrapa]

Okay, now I'm inspired to try and play this myself OTB xD

[@TheChessGiant]

Let me know how it goes Klaus!

[@tannerlogan9902]

I'm little bit late to this, but congrats on CM!!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Tanner! Miss you brotha hope you've been well!

[@l.m5544]

Should add an Eval bar

[@TheChessGiant]

Will have to think about this, thanks for the input!

[@jackyjoseph5143]

Congratulations on ur CM

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you! Excited to go for NM next!

[@sayssooooo]

Good job

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you!

[@allanmarks2150]

congratulations on breaking 2100

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Allan!

[@jeremaj7513]

Good job 👌🏻

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Jeremaj!

[@arikoudemans2166]

fascinated

[@TheChessGiant]

Glad you enjoyed the video Arik!

[@sagestseeker]

Hippo starting to feel like a stonewall.

[@TheChessGiant]

Haha true that!

[@dragonoyxd]

Hippopotamus

[@TheChessGiant]

The best chess opening in existence.

[@argentina8312]

❤❤

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks Arge

[@StudioVRM]

Congratulations CM Ruddell!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you brotha!