How do you play against the Hippo? It’s all about Space and
Potential. At risk of sounding like an estate agent, I propose to
describe my limited understanding of these issues…
Space
All else being equal, it’s an advantage to have more space. More
space means you can get about the board more easily, organise an attack
more easily, and sometimes all your opponent can do is sit tight while
you work out how to win:
Giving up the centre — Nimzowitsch again
What’s going on here?
We have two very different cases: more space with a fixed pawn
centre, and more space with a fluid centre. When things are not fixed,
the side with more space may have to watch out for counterplay right
across the board. There are half-open files, sort-of outposts, and the
possibility of a break on the side you take your eye off! These days,
the half-open centre is often contested in the Scotch, Caro-Kann and
sometimes the French Defences.
Half-open centres
- …e5xd4, Nxd4 in the Scotch Game
- …d5xe4, Nxe4 in the French and Caro-Kann
- …c5xd4, Nxd4 in the Sicilian
White has more space, and, while Black has counterplay, sometimes
that’s what decides the game. White can organise an attack, and if
things break open, can occupy key squares and lines more easily. White can add importantly to the space advantage with f2-f4 or c2-c4.
On the other hand, as Tarrasch said, “Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about!”
We’ll have one more advertisement for the centre before considering its burdens.
The Maroczy Bind: c4 and …c5xd4
Black’s counterplay in the Sicilian often comes from a Queen’s-side
push with …b5 (minority attack) or a well-timed counterblow in the
centre with …d5. Why doesn’t White stop both of these ideas with
c2-c4? (The Maroczy Bind). It can be crushing…
Ah, if only life was always so simple. In most lines of the
Sicilian, White is not allowed time to get in this c2-c4 move at all. In
others, White has time for c2-c4, but Black has time for development and
counterplay. In only one or two lines of the Sicilian has the Maroczy
proved to be a lasting test of Black’s resources, and even there Black
can play with hopes of equality or even turning around the game.
The Accelerated Dragon is the most common place where we see Binds, and
Black can hope to restrain the White structure, swap off all White’s
best pieces, and go for a QN vs QB endgame. That happens perhaps more often in Black’s head than on the board, but this might do as an exanmple:
Maroczy Bind with g3 and …g6
We often see this line arising from English Opening lines, mainly
the Symmetrical Variation. White has long been thought to have good
chances of an advantage, and I have enjoyed playing it as White:
It’s mate in 6…
I’ve often had Black knights crawling all over the dark squares on the Queen’s-side, but still won the game, because Black lacked the capacity to follow through with anything meaningful.
The Hedgehog: Maroczy Bind with g3 and …e6
“Playing against the Hedgehog requires forthright planning —
grabbing space and then doing something with it.” says Mark Ginsburg
Hedgehog with Bb7 and Nc6
I had the privilege of watching the following game. I have a feeling
that …Nc6 is a bit in the way. but there’s more going on here than I
can follow…
Hedgehog with Bb7 and Nbd7
Mihai Suba wrote an amusing book about the Hedgehog, Dynamic
Chess Strategy. He suggests that White can easily and quickly adopt
‘perfect’ but unimprovable position, and, while Black may be cramped,
can always find ways to improve things. It’s a psychological problem as
much as a chess one, but it is a problem, and no more clearly seen than
in this game from Chess for Tigers:
Much the same point is made by Sielecki in
recommending the Hedgehog [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YARzPWgDSQ ]
(or ‘headshock’) against the London: Black can find ways to improve and
expand more easily than White.
Double fianchetto hedgehog
It exists, but you don’t meet it very often, as it’s something of an
extravagance. d5 is very inviting for a Knight, and if chased off with …e6, the Black dark-squared Bishop cannot cover d6, f6 and h6 all at
once.
I had some ideas of probing the dark squares with Ng4 which may have made my illustrious opponent nervous, but Stockfish is unimpressed.
The Hippopotamus: double fianchetto with a full board
The Hippopotamus is often used in this formation:
[chessboard]
r2qk2r/1bpnnpb1/pp1pp1pp/8
[/chessboard]
Black has the entire second rank covered, has no obvious weaknesses and can probe with any pawn at any point.
Double fianchetto systems are as old as chess, but the Hippo looks
and feels a bit fishy to many when adopted by Black and with the
half-smothered Knights.
Yet, there are many great players who have tried
it as Black and even more great players who have made no progress
against it as White. Keene and Botterill give as evidence a game of
Keres who drew against Navarovsky’s Hippo (1/2-1/2, 27 moves) and
Petrosian’s two draws against Spassky’s beasts.
Spassky had a game with the Hippo against that great hypermodern innovator Ujtekly, which, although he won, may have given him some respect for its resilience — enough to try it in the greatest arena of chess.
Potential
“Never mud-wrestle with a pig. You both get filthy and the pig enjoys it!
The Hippopotamus is one of chess’s dirty little secrets. In a
repertoire book by White, you will rarely (never?) see a recommendation
of how to play against the Hippo — for example, it failed to make even the chapter
titled ‘Garbage’ in Sam Collins’ 2004 book — but players at all levels wheel
it out and survive and even thrive with it. Black’s position is ‘cramped
but not compromised’, in the words of Keene and Botterill, and White can
easily over-stretch, just as against the the Hedgehog. Every advance by White loosens the position, and Black may be well-placed to take advantage of new opportunities.
Jonathan Rowson
wondered aloud if the Hippo has now just about made it onto the
‘respectable’ list, where Black’s potential is compensation for White’s
space or initiative (Chess for Zebras, page 237) — the argument here is
similar to Suba’s point about the Hedgehog. As Tartakower once remarked, White has their initiative to defend!
So far, so general. It’s probably better to look at some specific formations.
The two-pawn centre hippopotamus
[chessboard]
r2qk2r/1bpnnpb1/pp1pp1pp/8/3PP3/2N2N2
[/chessboard]
With Black having full pawn control of the fourth rank, it’s almost
certain that White will have to break through with a pawn move. However,
e4-e5 can be readily met by …d6-d5, getting into a sort of French
Defence centre with White’s pieces in front of the c- and f-pawns, which
they might want to move. Black can quickly follow up with ….c7-c5 and perhaps …f7-f6, and
White may regret pushing the e-pawn!
Similarly, after d4-d5, Black can reply …e6-e5, getting a King’s
Indian sort of centre where …f5 is easy for Black to achieve, while
c2-c4-c5 may be a long way off for White.
White can hope that Black’s weaknesses on the wing where White gets
more space (King’s-side in the French, Queen’s-side in the King’s
Indian) are enough to override any inconvenience from advancing a pawn.
Whizzing through a number of 2500-level White wins in the Hippo, this
seems the most common way of winning.
Transfer to King’s Indian formation
Transfer to French formation
Black keeps the tension after a White advance
This maintenance of tension gives White the chance to swap an advanced pawn for a Bishop’s pawn — not usually a good idea, but might allow access to lines or squares.
White gets in with a break
White can try and arrange some other sort of breakthrough, perhaps
using some other pawn. Sometimes the breaks work, sometimes they don’t;
sometimes one or other side gets in on the wing, even while the central
situation is unresolved:
Black successfully anticipates a break:
White holds the tension
There is a long and interesting lecture about this game by the winner, available on Youtube
White hesitates and is lost:
If White just sits on their pretty development and does nothing with it,
Black can undermine the White centre with flank blows like …c5, and
even advance and take over the centre in Hypermodern style.
Black succeeds with wing play:
Black may be tempted or obliged to advance a pawn to the fourth rank
on the wing. …b5 is a common idea in the Modern, and more typical of
the Hippo is …g5 with the idea of …Ne7-g6-f4.
White succeeds with wing play:
Obliged or tempted Black may be, but once such an
advance has happened, White has something to aim at. …g5 invites the f2-f4 break, …b5 invites a2-a4, and …h5 invites g2-g4.
The main line?
Tiger’s Modern gives best play against White’s best set-up as notes to this game:
The three-pawn centres against the Hippo
With the adjustment of a Knight and the advance of the c- or f-pawn,
we have a three-pawn centre hippopotamus, and now Black needs to take
notice, as the White centre is much more solid. Black can hope that
while White is arranging all this, Black can sort out some way of
meeting it, or provokes White into advancing before they are quite ready
by some wing advance of their own.
Some of the most critical lines against Hippo structures start by
White aiming at a three-pawn centre from the very start.
def centre against the Hippo
I would have guessed this was risky for Black. Nigel Davies has made
a good case for it but Tiger Hillarp Persson doesn’t recommend it in his
book on the Modern, preferring to expand while possible with …b5, and
only permitting the luxury of the Hippo once White has committed to
blocking both Bishop’s pawns.
cde centre against the Hippo
This can arise from the English Defence
Miles and Short have both dabbled in it, pointing at White’s slow
3.a3 as justification.
In Danny King’s book on the English Defence, he suggests an early h2-h4 can critically restrict Black’s chances to expand, as shown in a couple of Milov-Miles games.
Nakamura rather provocatively tried it against Kramnik when White
had wasted no time at all… In a King’s Indian formation, the typical advance c4-c5 arrived
with lightning speed.
Move orders
People that know me won’t be surprised that I wonder if the Hippo can be move-ordered. I haven’t hit on anything yet, but there are some specific move orders that Black is well-advised to avoid:
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