Reversed Hippo or White Hippo - (Part 3)

Light notes by Stockfish 8

Reversed Hippo or White Hippo (part 2)

Light notes by Stockfish 8

Reversed Hippo or White Hippo?

Have you ever thought of playing the Reversed Hippo or the Hippo as White?
Well...a few strong players did. And in this and the next posts, we will show a few games by IM Jens Ove Fries Nielsen, GM Pavel Blatny, WGM Marta Michna, IM Aleksandar Wohl and the late FM Bernd Feustel 

Advantages

• surprise weapon;
• probably no published articles/books on this opening;

Disadvantages

• As White moves first, it has the obligation to be active and attack. Playing the White Hippo...you play as you were Black;

As the above mentioned adventurous players will demonstrate, the White Hippo is playable and they won many games with it.

Is it worth a try?

Ok let's start with Jens Ove Fries Nielsen vs. Joerg Hickl where a fully grown White Hippo was shown

For the light notes we were assisted by Stockfish 8

Jens Ove Fries Nielsen wins the 26th Erfurter Schachfestival.

At the end of 2016 IM Jens Ove Fries Nielsen won the 26th Erfurter Schahfestival.
It was quite a strong tournament, as you can see from the starting rank:

This is the final ranking crosstable:

And what follows is a typical Fries Nielsen game :-) as you can see from the original position arisen after a few moves 

A few considerations about Unorthodox Chess Openings

As soon as I gave up playing Unorthodox Chess Openings in Fide Rated Chess Tournaments, I started to gain elo points and I lost less games. Hard to admit but it happened.
Still I believe that some UCOs, such as 1.g4 or 1.e4 Nh6  are FULLY playable but they are impractical. I mean that they require an enormous amount of attention & energy to keep a balanced position...and as soon as you (the UCO player) make a slightly inferior move, the position risks to precipitate rather quickly...
For instance, this is not the case of the Colle System where you can obtain decent middlegame positions without risking too much.
As I am getting older, I get tired more easily and I do not feel comfortable to invest so much energy in the opening, although it is so much fun to play UCOs!
BUT in my opinion UCOs are FANTASTIC in rapid, blitz & bullet games/tournaments where the reduced time control & surprise effect may support the UCO choice.
Please consider that this is my opinion & experience...NOT the absolute truth.

Chess Tactics

Last week I participated in a Fide Rated chess tournament where I saw the following exciting combination on one of the boards. Please note that as I tried to remember it by heart, it is possible that the position shown in the diagram was not the exact position, so I will not mention the players' names.

Black to move:

Black played 1....Nxc4+ it followed: 2.dxc4 Qc3+ 3.Kd1 Rh1! (Stockfish prefers 3...Rh3 but the text is spectacular for the audience) 4.Qxh1 Qa1+ wins the Queen and the game.

RASHID NEZHMETDINOV

A documentary about the legendary International Master Rashid Nezhmetdinov." 

• "Nobody sees combinations like Rashid Nezhmetdinov." Mikhail Botvinnik 
• Nezhmetdinov is "the greatest master of the initiative." Lev Polugaevsky 
• "His games reveal the beauty of chess and make you love in chess not so much the points and high placings, but the wonderful harmony and elegance of this particular world." Mikhail Tal 
• "Rashid Nezhmetdinov is a virtuoso of combinational chess." David Bronstein

Books about Nezhmetdinov: