Sometimes you can tell a lot about a book from its cover.  Take Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo.  The first author, Gary K. Gifford, is the current editor/publisher of the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter, a treasure trove of chess ideas both inventive and challenging (to play, to face).  Davide Rozzoni is the previous editor of the UON, and very familiar with play outside of the mainstream lines.  Bill Wall is well known for his collections of short games by opening, such as 500 Sicilian Miniatures, 500 French Miniatures, etc.  The three have assembled 168 annotated games on a subject clearly quite dear to them – and their readers.

Gary Gifford

Bill Wall

Davide Rozzoni ??

Old Hippo

Next, take the title’s reference to the Old Hippo.  The Hippopotamus slogged into the chess world in John C. Thompson’s self-published pamphlet on the Hippopotamus Chess Opening (1957).  The Hippo, Thompson touted, could be played with either the black or the white pieces, and the game should start out, if at all possible, with the moves 1…f6, 2…g6, 3…Nh6, 4…Nf7, 5…e6, 6…c6, 7…d6, 8…Be7, 9…Nd7, 10…Nf8 and 11…b6; or 1.f3, 2.g3, 3.Nh3, 4.Nf2, 5.e3, 6.c3, 7.d3, 8.Be2, 9.Nd2, 10.Nf1 and 11.b3.

(For more history, see my review of Andrew Martin’s The Hippopotamus Rises - The Re-emergence of a Chess Opening as well as Alessandro Nizzola’s “Thompson’s Hippopotamus”).

Some time later – at least by the time Keene and Botterill’s The Modern Defence (1972) was published – the formation for Black with both bishops fianchettoed, pawns at d6 and e6, and knights at d7 and e7, was referred to as the Hippo.  The authors of Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo actually refer to that set-up as the Mongredien Defense (Augustus Mongredien, 1807-1888); while Hugh Myers (Myers Openings Bulletin, Vol 2, No. 10, March – April 1982) attributed it to MacLeod (Nicholas MacLeod, 1870 - 1965).
 
The difference between “old” and “new” was laid out by Andrew Martin, who, in his book on the Hippo, presents Thompson’s ideas and then writes "Nobody can play this way today.  Well, they can, but they are going to be slaughtered or they may be taking the mickey against a much weaker opponent."  Martin’s focus is then on the “modern” Hippo: the Mongredien/MacLeod arrangement. (Tiger Hillarp Persson’s Tiger's Modern has excellent coverage of the “new” Hippo as well.)

And the Krazy Kat?  It is the invention of Edward Bradford Adams (1878 - 1972), with the king’s knight developed to h6 and the king’s bishop fianchettoed.

As the authors write in their Introduction:

…Thus we will refer to the Nh6, g6, Bg7 lines as Krazy Kat, and will refer to other Nh6 lines, in which black omits the Kingside fianchetto, as the Nh6 Hippopotamus (or Old Hippo)…

…in both the normal Old Hippo and Krazy Kat, Black plays …f6, allowing his King’s Knight to occupy the f7 square. But there are some aggressive variations where Black plays the Knight to g4 or f5.

Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo, then, focuses on formations and play with the Black pieces (for White formations, recall my review of David Lonsdale’s The Elephant Gambit for Black – 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5!? and Amar Opening: The Krazy Kat System – 1. Nh3 e5 2. f3 d5 3. Nf2!?  and assorted Opening Monographs).

The Kat/Hippo complex also has its hero:

Dutch chess master Philip J. du Chantel (1945 - ) started playing the Nh6 Hippopotamus in the 1960s and developed its f5 push theme in the 1970s.  We refer to the f5 systems as Dutch Hippos or Dutch Krazy Kats, depending on what black does with his king’s bishop.  It would also be fitting to refer to these lines as the “du Chattel Defense.”

The book's contents:

Introduction
Classical Krazy Kat
            Knight on f7 and Bishop on g7
English Cat Hunts
            Classical Krazy Kats against White e4/d4/c4 pawn setups
Old Hippopotamus
            Defenses with Nh6, f6, Nf7, g6, but omitting Bg7
Dutch Cats and Dutch Hippos
            Pushing f7 to f5
Aggressive Knight
            Quickly playing the Black Knight to f5 or g4
Static Knight Pawn
            Keeping the pawn at g7
“Goodnight Hippo Knight”
            White exchanges his Queen’s Bishop for the h6 Knight
Concluding Remarks
About the Authors

Each chapter has an introduction followed by illustrative, annotated games.  It can be hard to characterize such a fluid formation, so the authors have done well in establishing their taxonomy.  Here are a few glimpses of the animals within the book:

The Classical Krazy Kat

Meulemans – Rozzoni
Corr. W-ch2 A2 email SEMI 1998

White to move

14.e5 fxe5 15.dxe5 d5

Black needs to keep the position closed.  White’s b3-bishop is hitting against a rock (e6-d5-c6 pawns).  Black has a bad bishop at c8.

Another Classical Krazy Kat

Velikov – Remmler
Avoine Open (1), 1995

Black to move

13…c5

After 13…Nd7!? a possible continuation would be 14.h5 g5 15.Bg3 Bh6 +/=
 

English Cat Hunt

Gifford – Malmstrom
TH13-86 THORG, 2005, correspondence

White to move

White is probably wise to complete his development and castle before attempting this premature attack [6.h4?!]; but I wanted to put the “h4-bust” theory to the test.  That idea, that h4 was a bust to the Nh6 defenses, popped up in a du Chattel game… and I disagreed with it then, and even more so now.  In this game I end up with a very ugly position that looks impossible to salvage a draw from, let alone win. – gkg

Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo is workbook size and perfect bound, with double-columned pages.  Each page has 2 or 3 very readable (and accurate) diagrams; and there is a good use of bolding, italics and white space.  The cover is quite attractive (although I am more reminded by the pawn of Felix, rather than Ignatz’s gal).

Gifford, Rozzoni and Wall have created quite a gift – for Christmas, or as a start to an exciting New Year – to Hippo players and to explorers of the unorthodox equally.  Club players who have wanted to add that “push your pawns defense” to their repertoire (isn’t it annoying when the local Expert does that to you?) but who would like a pathway through the swamp of variations can rejoice with this resource: the Kat ain’t Krazy after all, and the Hippo ain’t near being old…
 

back cover

 

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