I have taken interest in the Ponziani and was looking for some material to study and get some insight in the opening. Who plays(ed) it frequently? Main lines? Tactics and known blunders? Any help is appreciated.

Do we really need another Ponziani thread?  How about let's called this particular forum subsection: the Parham and Ponziani forums instead of the Chess Openings forum?  After all, they both equally suck about as much.

Try using the search feature, or is that too hard?

Hou Yifan played it against Magnus Carlsen in the Tata Steel Tournament last week.

Come on, the Ponziani isn't in the same class as the Parham.

It wasn't only Hou Yifan who played the Ponziani against Carlsen. Carlsen himself had just played it against Harikrishna.

When is the last time two strong GMs played the Parham in a top-level classical chess tournament? Never is the answer unless I'm mistaken. I don't play 1.e4 much nowadays, so I don't have any stake, but I'd laugh myself silly if I saw a GM playing the Parham, and the Ponziani isn't even in the same category of opening.

The Ponziani is an old classical opening.  Black can get a good game without much trouble, but it is positionally sound and taking it lightly is risky.  There is a group here of Ponziani fans.

As with many other old or unusual endings, it has a certain surprise value and many amateur players will not be sure how to play against it.

I wouldn't lump it with the Parham, which is just a gimmick.

People do tend to start new threads on topics which have been posted many times before, and we complain about it - but then we also complain when people search the archives and resurrect long-dead threads, so you can't win!

The Parham has been invented again and again by thousands of patzers over the ages.

Ponziani runs: e4 e5; Nf3 Nc6; c3.

it's like ruy lopez, instead of Bg5 of lopez, c3 is played. The idea is to build a solid pawn centre. This is opening is normally played by <2200 players, rare among higher rated games. That's why magnus was surprised when hou yifan played it against him. The Opening leads to tactical game.

You should analyse and study some games for those things.

What's with the nonsensical puzzle? White already blundered with exd5, Qa4 is clearly the move.