Hippo Defense

I am committed to learn the hippo defense. I am presenting some games in this thread.

Two problems.

1) What you post is not the hippo.  The hippo features the a, b, d, e, g, and h-pawn all on the 6th rank and black will break with c5 or f5.

2) The hippo is ineffective as an all around defense.  It is only effective when White has committed to a4.  After 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 (or 4.Nf3) a6 and now, only if 5.a4 should Black play the Hippo starting with 5...b6, avoiding 6.a5.

If no a4, Black will play ...b5 instead.  Also, against the Austrian Attack, 4.f4, Black must hit White's center fast with a ...c5 push early on, usually move 5 or 6.  Passive play is no good against the Austrian Attack.

yes thriller fan. The hippo has to be played carefully because of tricky weak pawns and often white will try to get an attack. However, it seems that it can transpose to varius other openings if you know what you are doing.

In the game you posted (which is, as ThrillerFan already commented, not a Hippo) I'd prefer 4...a6 over 4...c6. If White goes for the 150 attack, ...c6 seems like a waste, because Black wants to go for ...c5 anyway.

The plus point of the hippo is that you can establish a pawn structure of your own liking and then go for the thematic breaks which you can learn to spot the occasion for.

this is not a hippo