I'm a big believer in learning any opening theory you can get your eyes on. Even if you don't play it you might have to play against it. Even if you don't expect to play against it you still get transpositions, reversed colors and similar positions, believe it or not. Plus it's such a thrill when someone plays the Latvian or Matinovsky or Portsmouth gambit to throw you off only to find you know it better than they do
I get those ideas from diffrent master games, moves which aren't the best, but the position is just so much easier to play and normaly is it really hard to find them. Engine doesn't show them and very few players play them. Looking into winrate on the moves is more important than I thought. Awesome video
@@TheChessGiant At what point though do you take into account the % of times a move was played? If a move that wins 55% of time has been played 1,200 times (say 95% of the time) while a move that wins 62% of the time has only ever been played 2 times, are you still taking the latter? If not, how big of a sample size do you need in order to go with the better performing move?
It’s possible you’ve already done a video on this, but I would love a video on Shirov’s style of the Modern (Hikaru too maybe). They did some interesting things with it
You don't fool us, CG. You've been glued to the candidate's tournament like the rest of us. By the way, loved seeing you practicing your hoops moves in some old TH-cams. Welcome back!
@@TheChessGiant Gukesh. Ian blew it last time, and I'm not sure Ding has the personality or fortitude equal to the task. He looked totally spent at the end against Ian.
Great video! Another interesting option is playing a6 on move 3, so that Black has options (other than d6) if White plays f4 or c4. Namely, if f4, then Black has d5. If instead 4.c4, then Black Nc6 when if White kicks the knight with d5, Black has Nd4 & can reinforce the Nd4 outpost with c5 bc if dxc en passant Black having not moved his d-pawn yet has dxc6 reinforcing Nd4 with his Q on d8. If White piles on attacking the Nd4 outpost again (with say Nf3 or Ne2) Black locks it in with e5. Stockfish gives Black an advantage here bc of his center grip. Of course, if 4. Be3, Black probably has nothing better than transposing into your suggested line with 4…d6, but I’ve found many players in reply to 3..a6 will rush to establish a 3-pawn center (with f4 or c4) which Black is perfectly poised to immediately attack. Some of the slipperiness of the Modern & Hippo is to play moves that give white a chance to rush forward & get tripped up but are still useful even if White does not take the “bait.” Anyway, Solomon bravo on this video & please post more. PS: Hope your upcoming Alekhine course has a way to handle the exchange variation, as it seems to give white an annoying special edge while also suppressing black’s counterplay.
Thanks for these ideas! I will pin this comment so people can see some good extra theory/ideas. And YES, the first two chapters of the Alekhine's Defense course cover the exchange variation with how to play exd6 and cxd6 as well!
@@TheChessGiant Good. Thxs :). Miss studying new chess ideas in depth but will pick up lessons were left off when back home in USA again in about 2 weeks. Cheers
a6 idea is so good. I don't play hippo but I get that annoying bishop queen battery so many times in pirc kid and dragon. Also this idea is valuable in many queen side castle scenarios in Sicilian
Yep that is exactly right! There is so much that this a6 move helps with... the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, Pirc Defense, Modern Defense, and probably some other stuff too.
Problem with blacks h5 after h4 in the Modern Tiger is that you can expect a white knight on g5 after Nh3 that won't go away. In one video about pirc/modern defense they said one should capture Nh3 with Bc8 but that is not possible when there is a pawn on e6 or a knight on d7 or when Bb7 has already been played.
Good points! I would recommend plugging that line into Stockfish and seeing what the engine has black respond. The knight is very annoying, but we can also plant a knight or bishop on g4 so both sides give something up. Of course, white can play pawn f3 but that gives them a ton of issues just like pawn f6 would for us. And ya I don't recommend giving up our light-squared bishop. Great thoughts thanks for sharing.
@@TheChessGiant White often plays f3, Be3, Qd2 and will castle long. But when black has already played b5 black won't castle long. So f3 is not bad for white. If I remember correctly Stockfish giving about an equal game after Ng5. But black has to be careful. Good idea to use Stockfish again for i forget and position is difficult to play for black.
Hippo ideas have found their way into every chess game I play regardless of the opening I may be playing. If I don't know what to do I'll think what would the hippo do?
mmm.....I always try to do 4. b5 when I can with black after the setup you had after 2:23. but what I usually do is the opposite with b6, e6, and h6, followed by g5, and Bg7, hoping to get into a polish setup. Every time I have tried the hippo I have drawn (out of 50 games) W 12 L 10 and D 38 which is ridiculous, but that's why I stick to my good ol' St. George or Reversed Anderson Hobb Attack. having pawns. on d6 AND e6, or the other way, really hurts my position for me personally.
Ya I personally (usually) like to play slow with a6/b6/g6/h6 before I advance at all.... just because I don't want to extend the pawn structure when my pieces ain't ready to go.
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I'm a big believer in learning any opening theory you can get your eyes on. Even if you don't play it you might have to play against it. Even if you don't expect to play against it you still get transpositions, reversed colors and similar positions, believe it or not. Plus it's such a thrill when someone plays the Latvian or Matinovsky or Portsmouth gambit to throw you off only to find you know it better than they do
Yes!!!! Agreed. Love this approach.
Good to have you back.
Thanks Michael!
I get those ideas from diffrent master games, moves which aren't the best, but the position is just so much easier to play and normaly is it really hard to find them. Engine doesn't show them and very few players play them. Looking into winrate on the moves is more important than I thought. Awesome video
Glad you liked it Billi, and yes I will almost always take overall performance of a move even if it's just slighty not what the computer recommends
@@TheChessGiant At what point though do you take into account the % of times a move was played? If a move that wins 55% of time has been played 1,200 times (say 95% of the time) while a move that wins 62% of the time has only ever been played 2 times, are you still taking the latter? If not, how big of a sample size do you need in order to go with the better performing move?
It’s possible you’ve already done a video on this, but I would love a video on Shirov’s style of the Modern (Hikaru too maybe). They did some interesting things with it
I don't think I have beyond the Hippo stuff Hikaru does with a6 -- I will keep this in mind!
good to have you back, look forward the some alekhine's stuff too!
Didn't know that you grinded chess as well.
Thanks for that brotha, and yessirrr!!
Good to see you back, Solomon 💪
Thank you brotha 🙏🏼
Best chess educator for us normal folks!
Thank you for that! 🙏🏼
Wheeze honk!! Glad to see you are back and safe.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🦛🦛
Thanks chess g this modern hippo ting has totes transformed my chess, Ur vids have been so helpful
You don't fool us, CG. You've been glued to the candidate's tournament like the rest of us. By the way, loved seeing you practicing your hoops moves in some old TH-cams. Welcome back!
Hahaha ya for sure. It was a crazy one! Do you have Gukesh or Ding winning it all?
@@TheChessGiant Gukesh. Ian blew it last time, and I'm not sure Ding has the personality or fortitude equal to the task. He looked totally spent at the end against Ian.
Great video! Another interesting option is playing a6 on move 3, so that Black has options (other than d6) if White plays f4 or c4. Namely, if f4, then Black has d5. If instead 4.c4, then Black Nc6 when if White kicks the knight with d5, Black has Nd4 & can reinforce the Nd4 outpost with c5 bc if dxc en passant Black having not moved his d-pawn yet has dxc6 reinforcing Nd4 with his Q on d8. If White piles on attacking the Nd4 outpost again (with say Nf3 or Ne2) Black locks it in with e5. Stockfish gives Black an advantage here bc of his center grip. Of course, if 4. Be3, Black probably has nothing better than transposing into your suggested line with 4…d6, but I’ve found many players in reply to 3..a6 will rush to establish a 3-pawn center (with f4 or c4) which Black is perfectly poised to immediately attack. Some of the slipperiness of the Modern & Hippo is to play moves that give white a chance to rush forward & get tripped up but are still useful even if White does not take the “bait.” Anyway, Solomon bravo on this video & please post more.
PS: Hope your upcoming Alekhine course has a way to handle the exchange variation, as it seems to give white an annoying special edge while also suppressing black’s counterplay.
An improvement to that is 3… a3 only if 3. Nc3, that’s what I do
Thanks for these ideas! I will pin this comment so people can see some good extra theory/ideas. And YES, the first two chapters of the Alekhine's Defense course cover the exchange variation with how to play exd6 and cxd6 as well!
@@TheChessGiant Good. Thxs :). Miss studying new chess ideas in depth but will pick up lessons were left off when back home in USA again in about 2 weeks. Cheers
a6 idea is so good. I don't play hippo but I get that annoying bishop queen battery so many times in pirc kid and dragon. Also this idea is valuable in many queen side castle scenarios in Sicilian
Yep that is exactly right! There is so much that this a6 move helps with... the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, Pirc Defense, Modern Defense, and probably some other stuff too.
Problem with blacks h5 after h4 in the Modern Tiger is that you can expect a white knight on g5 after Nh3 that won't go away. In one video about pirc/modern defense they said one should capture Nh3 with Bc8 but that is not possible when there is a pawn on e6 or a knight on d7 or when Bb7 has already been played.
Good points! I would recommend plugging that line into Stockfish and seeing what the engine has black respond. The knight is very annoying, but we can also plant a knight or bishop on g4 so both sides give something up. Of course, white can play pawn f3 but that gives them a ton of issues just like pawn f6 would for us. And ya I don't recommend giving up our light-squared bishop. Great thoughts thanks for sharing.
@@TheChessGiant White often plays f3, Be3, Qd2 and will castle long. But when black has already played b5 black won't castle long. So f3 is not bad for white.
If I remember correctly Stockfish giving about an equal game after Ng5. But black has to be careful. Good idea to use Stockfish again for i forget and position is difficult to play for black.
I'm thinking we should refer to the "a6, b5" setup as the "Rhino" since they're kind of in the shape of a Rhino's horn :)
I like this name! 🦏 🦏
Hippo ideas have found their way into every chess game I play regardless of the opening I may be playing. If I don't know what to do I'll think what would the hippo do?
Love it!!! Ya it is very interesting how Hippo ideas can be seen it so much different stuff
"new ideas that ive been working on"
brother, its the main line
mmm.....I always try to do 4. b5 when I can with black after the setup you had after 2:23. but what I usually do is the opposite with b6, e6, and h6, followed by g5, and Bg7, hoping to get into a polish setup. Every time I have tried the hippo I have drawn (out of 50 games) W 12 L 10 and D 38 which is ridiculous, but that's why I stick to my good ol' St. George or Reversed Anderson Hobb Attack. having pawns. on d6 AND e6, or the other way, really hurts my position for me personally.
Ya I personally (usually) like to play slow with a6/b6/g6/h6 before I advance at all.... just because I don't want to extend the pawn structure when my pieces ain't ready to go.
You should make fitted polo shirts with chess pieces
cool!!
i vote a6 as hippo official 4th move
i belive a lot of people prefer the choice -logo /picture on back ...(adults)
Merch design idea: zoom in on my profile image