not necassarily. you can lose a knight in the opening and win a queen in the middlegame. its not over until its over

yeah they are all important

Well, I think the OP needs to give some more info. He said he is a HS level player. This year, I played first board on my team and If you averaged the ratings of all of my opponents together, you would find that it was over 1800. Now that is for first board. If we look down to second board, that number drops rapidly to about 1200 or 1300. Then third board is even farther away. It was quite interesting. I would like to know what board the person is playing and how experienced his opponents are. I played the ponziani 4 times in the season and I won all four games. Its a great surprise weapon and I think players shouldn't throw it out because black can equalize. Most black players don't know theory on it anyway. White can create a menacing game and black can get into a whole lot of trouble. 

What I would do is attempt the Colle system, which is a good opening for club players...? Though against good opposition the best it offers is equality.

Well yes, d5 does offer equality. But, if you play correctly, you will end up better because you should know theory better than your opponents. 

Well the Parham actually is not all that bad, as long as your opponent does not know what to do against it. Unfortunately in this day and age, if you have ever had a coach, one of the first things you will hear is to never bring out your queen early. And the perfect example of this is the Parham. So pretty much, the majority of the chess population knows how to play against it. The ponziani is not as well known, therefore fewer people play correctly against it. You can play what you want, but there are better openings out there than the Parham and the ponziani. If you want to be a GM, you might as well try the Ruy Lopez or the Queens Gambit. 

Fried Liver is a draw according to engine analysis, with perfect play from both sides. Lolli is a win for white, with best play. Max Lange is a great opening

What is the double muzio

I played a game with the King's Gambit today. It ended in a draw.

The double muzio is a great line. Much better than the single muzio. It's probably a win for white. The KG is busted, with 3. D6!

PP please don't believe that crap. Fischer never believed it else he wouldn't have played it. He also didn't publish a "refutation" to 3. Bc4 which allowed him to play it. plus modern theory has shown that Black winning in the 3. ... d6 line against the Knights gambit is laughable. probably a draw with best play. but who cares the KG is not busted. it is farther from busting than the Parham is. and if it were busted by that then why wasn't that line played against Carlesn and Nakamura when they played it? and to those who are saying those are just two cases I say it doesn't matter if it were busted then it would because that is a counter point.

My point being its harder to refute some 500 years of theory than it is to refute an f-ed up system that doesn't work once the queens are traded.

Lolli gambit is 5. Bxf7 instead of 5. 0-0 (Muzio). 

I call umbrage. Fischer played it. the above is hereby refuted. thank you.

Gavinator if you disagree then your mind is FUBAR

FUBAR means F***** Up Beyond All Repair

Your argument fails to take into consideration Fischers actions which speak louder than words. your argument is FUBAR just like you.

modern theory proves fischers bust is only a playable defence.

and yes it is the same lolli.

also Fischer failed to even adress 3. Bc4 in his article.

he later played the opening himself nullifying his own argument. (he played both by the way) and this was before he was really good. this was back when he was just a teen in the early 1960 -65 that would be

19 in 1960 when he wrote the article.

22 when he played it in the US championship. (if it were busted even GM Evan's would have been able to beat Fischer)

and so on.

Fischer may have been good. but he was not good enough to bust a respectable opening.

Respectable? It is dubious but dangerous at lower levels of chess. It is certianly not busted but could not really be called respectable.

I do. It is you.

If you were capable of understanding your problem you wouldn't have it in the first place.

You shouldn't. Self esteem is very important.

See kids, that's called hypocrisy.

Italian Game and Phillidor respectively for white and black in e4. London system and QGD for d4...