Simple Opening?

Originally posted by Gammastyle
Thanks everyone for your input. I just wanted to see if the players on here were more open minded than the other sights that just bashed an idea because "Kasparov hasn't played it so it must be bad." The opening is weak, I am the first to admit it, but it isn't "losing" in the sense that it has been refuted. It doesn't provide any real chance other tha I stop playing poker, I don't think I will have that kind of commitment to the game.

GM Larry Christiansen often uses this opening...in material-odds blitz! Christiansen uses this setup when he's giving Queen odds, as it provides no obvious weaknesses for Black to attack. Most of the fish he plays have no clue how to proceed against it.

Originally posted by ChessJester
Against someone who knows how to play, the opening will lose more often than not. Maybe against beginners it would work.

It's a small sample, of course, but I played a blitz match tonight against a player whose strength is similar to mine. In every game I played the system being discussed in this thread, and I won 6-0. I usually gained a significant time advanatage in the opening, and was able to take advantage of my time edge by creating highly tactical situations in the middlegame.

BTW, Spassky played this system twice as black in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Petrosian in their 1966 World Championship match. Both games were drawn.

Originally posted by chesskid001
I saw a book by i think GM Andrew Soltis on the Hippopotamaus at my local chess center.

IM Andrew Martin recently wrote a book called, "The Hippopotaumus Rises." Soltis wrote a book on the English Defense (...b6 and ...e6 against anything).