A great opening for beating sub-2000 players

The Ponziani is the main aggressive/surprise opening I used as White when I climbed from 1600 USCF to eventually 2130 over about three years. My coach GM Alex Wojtkiewicz (R.I.P.) suggested it as an easy way to trip up class players who likely don't have time to study this somewhat obscure opening and figure they'll just play it over the board if they encounter it. Unfortunately for them, the "natural" moves are the wrong ones and they can easily fall into some traps. This opening is also good for online blitz and bullet games for the same reason.

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• chess
• opening
• lesson
• ponziani
• trap

[Riceyes]

Nice video. I'm a fairly new player and every time I see that 1. e4 e5 2. c3 opening, I go in thinking I have the advantage but soon find myself struggling, never realizing where I went wrong.

[Rickdd2]

@Riceyes Get all your pieces out quickly, castle, then try to make every move be a threat. Always ask 'how can I threaten something' with every move.

[Niven42]

Ponziani gets played a lot at club level because the point of c3 is to deny black putting his queen's knight on b4 or d4. But I would expect most 1700+'s to understand this trap.

[Rickdd2]

@Niven42 They usually do at that level, but also use up a lot of their clock to find it. That's one good thing, the other is if the trap fails you're back into a regular Spanish/Italian position and you can still have a good game.

[tjxkid]

Once chess was my breath. I miss chess so so much

[Rickdd2]

@tjxkid go to playchess . com and click on 'play for free.'

[ThePurplehayze420]

He either loses a piece or it's checkmate... Or worse! Wait..., I guess there is nothing worse than checkmate. lol

[theramoz1]

great video thx

[guitarnukka724]

What's up with the move at 4:24? the pawn capture..

[KillaNinja0]

@Rickdd2 That's a terrible mindset to play the game

[staphinfection]

This is a lot of "IF".... You're putting all your faith in the player doing a particular move for this to work.

[yistackness]

why does it sound like Howard Stern commentating??

[AeanHD]

what if black moves pawn to f6 at 7:46?

[endrake2]

@Rickdd2 This is the exact same thing I do everytime I'm on a first date

[645akz]

Oh, and after he goes bishop f5, i go knight d2, He then moves his pawn forward to c3 (just moving forward, not taking anything), What on earth do I do then, thats not really good for me as he will be a pawn forward..., I've tried most scenero's against lv8 chess titan, and I get my ass kicked by checkmate. Normally playing= Lv7 is dead easy (easier to mate), lv6 is more defensive (long, but I always manage to promote or keep a rook to win), lv8 is just dead hard, Haven't won a single game.Help?

[645akz]

Noooo, why did u skip the part where the player puts bishop to f5 (to protect the knight)? You say were still at a advantage but I don't see it if he plays the bishop after you do en passant attack (your video at 4:59) Please help man! Anyone? Cause after en passant attack its 1-1 and your pawn is way up there undefended.