Stalling with the Hippo opening is hilarious in 3-minute Chess games.

Anyone else? I just can't seem to lose with the Hippo, even when paired against much stronger players. I feel like it's overpowered in 3-minute games. Whenever my opponent tries to trade a pawn, I simply lock all the pieces and move some of the back-rank pieces back and forth until they either 1) run out of time trying to find a way to break through or 2) make an unequal trade to attempt a breakthrough. Even then, the position is so straightforward that I end up winning on time regardless.

The icing on the cake is that it's effing hilarious. Try it yourself, please!

Here's my most recent game with it:

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/79125823019?tab=analysis

What if they do the same thing, moving the same piece back and forth, don't you get a draw?

Draws are much appreciated, especially since I'd lose against them in any other setting!

I would take the draw especially if I am running out of time trying to break the structure in blitz.

Too much theory to learn….

ChessBrah did a speed run?

Just try to play f5. Against 12.b5, you could go 12...h6 to avoid nasty 13.Ng5 and then go for 13...f5, for example, 13. Qd2 13....Kq7 14. a5 14....f5.

isnt that boring tho?

Hippo is one of the more boring openings I think, all defensive developments imo.

I saw this post as I was about to log off and it brought back memories of when I attempted the Hippo. Dashed off to Lichess to run it back/experiment lol, lost the first two but won the third. It felt good lol. Good old Hippo, well my attempt at it at least, if I got it right lol. I still believe in it, but totally forgot about it until seeing your post:

thanks, I'll try it out! Seems good for when there's a time constraint.

I actually disagree with this opening, since a strong pawn advancement can break the Hippo s pawn chain, allowing white s better developed pieces to commit a masacre on blacks pieces. If played correctly, of course.

Well your opponent should have been trying to open up the files any chance he got, for example been trying to play c5. When he played b5 instead he allowed you to play a5 and then had no hope at all of breaking through on that side. Your passive rook moves on the kingside were not sound at all as you had a lot more work trying to barricade your kingside before you could start making moves like that. Look how dangerous his f-pawn became.

The hippo is no joke but at the higher levels it's mostly just an inferior king's indian defence.

+1

The Hippo along with the Hedgehog are GM level positions of defense. I don't see many GM games where Black plays either directly. Usually White set up an attack and Black transposes into one of these.

IMO Very high level technique.

These openings are not very conducive to getting a grasp on the game

Hippo see me happy