Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Ponziani Opening!

Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Ponziani Opening!

The Ponziani Opening begins with the moves:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. c3

The most popular options for white are the Giuoco Piano, Italian Game, Ruy Lopez, Scotch Game, Scotch Gambit, Evans Gambit, Fried Liver Attack, Three Knights Opening, and Four Knights Opening. These chess openings are used at the Grandmaster level, but today we cover an opening that isn’t as common with the Ponziani Opening! The Ponziani Opening isn’t played often at the Grandmaster level because with perfect play, black can reach equality. Well, that’s what they say at least! In today’s video, I will not be covering the most common variations for white, but the variations that perform better! One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is going onto a chess database, looking up an opening like the Ponziani, and then only going over the main line. We need to go over the most popular variations by the opponent, but we ourselves should approach chess with more creativity! In most chess openings, there are opening moves that are ignored, but that doesn’t mean their worse! In fact, I believe when one plays the Ponziani to perfection against e5, white is guaranteed a slight advantage, and it’s very easy for black to make mistakes since most black players don’t prepare well for the Ponziani! In today’s video, we will cover the chess opening strategy, chess opening moves, chess opening principles, chess opening ideas, chess opening tricks, chess opening tips, and chess opening traps surrounding the Ponziani Opening. Chess strategy, principles, moves, ideas, tricks, traps, secret checkmate strategy are all important when studying chess openings.

The Ponziani Opening is also a good chess opening for beginner chess players and intermediate chess players. Why is this? First off, the Ponziani is a ton of fun! There are tons of tricks and traps that can help you improve at chess fast, beat higher rated players, and get more wins under your belt. The Ponziani is also good for showing how to play chess and how to improve at chess. The chess opening strategy, chess opening theory, chess opening lines, chess opening moves, chess opening ideas, chess opening principles, chess opening variations, chess opening tricks, chess opening traps, and chess opening chess opening strategy is second to none. The Ponziani opening is simply a top tier chess opening for white and can help you win more games. In this beginner’s chess lesson, we hope that you will not just learn to memorize lines and variations but really understand the game of chess. The fastest way to improve at chess is by not memorizing opening, but growing in the concept of the strategy, principles, and ideas surrounding a chess opening. Memorizing chess openings (especially chess opening traps) never hurts, but this needs to be done with understanding why we do what we do! We hope you enjoy learning to play the Ponziani Opening!

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172 Comments

  1. Professor Ruddell,

    When you are the black pieces, and white plays the Ponziani opening (3. c3) against you, what is your preferred defense?

    3. Nf6 (Jaenisch) ?
    3. d5 ?
    3. d6 ?
    3. f5 (Ponziani counter-gambit) ?
    3. other ?

    thank you!

  2. I tried doing ponziani and something similiar to scholars mate in the endgames it worked beautifully👌

  3. Sir is ponziani attacking or mainly positional opening?And I love calm ,strategical,not complex,simple game with less pieces ,avoiding tactical calculations with more pieces..Please please please recommend few lists from both black and white…Thank you

  4. Another great video. Thanks heaps Solomon.

  5. Isn’t pawn to d4 at 15:58 en passant ? What am I missing?

  6. Nice and clear, I normally don’t “like and subscribe “ when asked at the start (often stop watching) … but having watched it I do want to see more:-)

  7. At 6:46 you mention how the black queen can't take the dark sq bishop – but if he takes and you check the king, black has a mate in 1 on c1. Don't see how that variation works! Could someone explain?

  8. 7:52why don't just take the pawn and treat the knight as it's pined

  9. Could you make a video on the kings gambit there are not that many good videos on it. Love your videos by the way

  10. At 8:16, if black bishop goes to g4 instead of d7 , it kinda messes up everything for white lol.. so if white castles afterwards , u proceed by taking the knight on f3 and black has better position and up a knight

  11. "…black doesn't want to get forked…."

  12. At 17:29 you didn't present one of the best lines (and traps) for white after black plays d6….
    [Variant "From Position"]

    [FEN "r1bqkb1r/ppppnppp/8/3PN3/4n3/2P5/PP3PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq – 0 1"]

    1… d6 2. Bb5+ c6 3. dxc6 bxc6 4. Nxc6 Qb6 5. Nd4+ Bd7 6. Bxd7+ +-

  13. hi I love your videos you are the only YouTuber that explains and helps me understand new chess openings so i was wondering if you could do the Stafford gambit if you haven't thank you stay safe love you vids

  14. 17:15 the problem is Black can ignore his attacked Knight and play Bc5

  15. Loving it. I don't know if you did it already, i must check, but i would love to have a video on the reti

  16. At 3:56 why does black play h6? according to engines O-O or a6 is better…

  17. Haven't seen this played since magnus carlsen playe dit for a while,love off beat openings like alekhine,b6,nimzo indian,hippo,jobava london another under rated opening.

  18. Are Gambit (any) played nowadays on grandmaster level? If so, could you please make a video about it?

  19. Hye Coach, can we apply this Ponziani opening to Black?

  20. You sound like James Lindsey from New Discourses

  21. i plye3d this opening and every time i play MY OP PLAYS QUEEN

  22. duuude, your voice is so deep, I recommend using a speaker with full bass… and enjoy the video 😂

  23. I studied this video with stockfish and it seemingly thinks that instead of Bf4 at 6:30 it prefers the instant Rd1, as the Bf4 variation would win a rook, but only after Bb5 by white, which would give black time to play Nf6-Ng4 and create some counterplay. It still gives white some advantage of about +0.8-1.0, but the instant Rd1 move seems to give him a +3.8 advantage, and would win the d3 pawn next move anyways, which would put black at a huge disadvantage. What's your opinion on this? Apart from that, I got into your videos from the ponziani series and can see you're doing a brilliant job. Keep up the good work.

  24. Thanks man. Really instructive vid. Have watched a couple of times and will continue to return to. Cheers

  25. Used to occasionally see some of your videos, now I'm watching every one. Completely deserve the sub. Also I'd love to see something covering more trappy King's Indian Defense lines if those exist… either way, LOVE the channel

  26. This opening looks like a lot of fun! I think I'll give it a spin next time I play!

  27. Bro make Caro Kann Fantasy variation please.

  28. Saya dari Bandung Indonesia, terimakasih atas informasinya , permainan Queen Gambit Ku semakin meningkat.

  29. for english speakers – Giuco is pronounced 'Joco' not 'Geco'…

  30. F6 move for black is a Steinitz variation of d5 line

  31. Hey Solomon, another great video! Just wanted to point out that the bishop trap @6:50 earns you the queen with bxc7+, unless I missed something…? Going to my first tournament this weekend and am prepping a Ponziani bombshell LOL

  32. Man I just don"t understand how this https://youtu.be/VNxz6w0fmys?t=391 is good for white, black can be even by just playing King d8 after we took on c6, after this if we go for the rook, their queen eat our second bishop, could you explain me pls ?

  33. This video made me realise how much I've been playing Ponziani wrong! 😭😭😭
    I've been winning using all the wrong ways…

  34. cheers. and looking forward to you becoming an NM, pretty exciting! have a great year.

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