The Ponziani Opening

I've never used that opening before, so I dunno.

"Ooooo, I hates when that happens!..."

This question may have a fairly obvious answer, but why is the Ponziani considered decent for beginners? I looked on youtube for a tutorial on this opening, and the main video I could find was "a good opening for beating sub-2000 players", reinforcing that point. Is it because masters would be more familiar with this opening, as ameteurs are not, or maybe they are better at exploiting the weaknesses such as the knight's lack of development on c3, or the uncastled king?

The ponziani opening is "ok" and playable for any level but lacks the serious punch once a player understands what to do against it. Doesnt mean you cannt win but you will invest a lot of time trying to squeeze out an opening from a system that wont help you develop as a player. I had a slight epiphany reading my great predessors I when Kasparov said that players chess should develop along historical lines. this to me means play older systems first then learn the more modern ones. Kings gambits, guccio piano, evans gambits all the e4 e5 Nf3 with a fast c3 and d4 system. do this before moving on to the more complex ruy lopez and modern systems. You will be surprised how many puzzle pieces start fitting together once you do this. That said the ponziani opening sorta fits into this but runs into the quick ...d5 break in the center leaving white trying to sort out how to develop pieces and giving black a more free hand than other systems like the evans or guccio piano

I just did a little checking - found a player rated 1134, he's on the 28.8% percentile, so I figure an 1100 is mighty close to the bottom 25% of the membership. Since I've seen some piss-poor chess from players rated way higher than that, "bottom 25%" might as well do for "beginner" unless you want to think of a harsher name.

Also, no need to call me "god", and any time you want to stop this three-minute woodpushing you call chess and play to a sensible time limit, we can find out which of us is the dummy.

If you want my opinion, it sounds like you've been playing the "I want to get better at chess so I need to memorize openings" game.  It's okay-  we've all been there.  My real life friends have, most of my email chess buddies, and myself have all done it before.  If you want to improve, opening theory will not help you.  Not at your level and definitely not in blitz.  If you want to get better, focus on the fundamentals: tactical themes like pins and skewers, king safety, bad vs. good bishops, and pawn structures.  Even at my level (~1750) advanced opening theory is not crucial.

And to answer your question the Ponziani is a fine opening.  But learning one trap line in it from a youtube video does not tell you anything about the underlying principles and goals of it.  If you want to learn a new opening I suggest you not let someone hand-feed you lines to play.  Go through some master games (preferably annotated) where it was played or use an engine to do some analysis yourself.  There's no sense in playing a move you don't understand.

I like it, only problem with every e4 opening is that you'll most likely face sicillian more than anything else, so be prepared for that.

I'm not going to get into an argument about the word "idiot" when it's clear I'm dealing with an expert on the subject, but I'm not acting like all people below me are beginners - just players who do things like drop pieces left, right and centre, or leave a mate in one on the board (like someone I played around Christmas time here). And sometimes weak players are literally beginners. Case in point: not too long ago I played a teenager called ChessIsMaths and beat the $#it out of him. I was looking through my old games yesterday and I happened to notice his rating in online chess is now over 2200.  Figure I wouldn't be beating him quite so easily any more...

And like Estragon says, calling someone a beginner, rather than a rabbit or a moron, at least implies they're going to be a better player some time soon. Dial back the indignation-by-proxy, wouldja?

forgive my ignorance butt i dont even know the Ponzani.

Normally I'd give you a lmgfty link, but just this once... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponziani_Opening

The OP's one game to date wasn't brilliant, but you don't expect much in even a ten-minute game unless both players are already reasonably skilled. And if it comes to that, every game I've ever played, later analysis shows I could have played it better.

I can concurr that the Ponziani is indeed a fine opening for beginners like you and me. And I think that if you just remember that after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 you play 3. c3 to prepare d4 that is all you need to know. Against the Sicilian  (1. ...c5 instead of 1. ...e5) you can allegedly play the same moves with the same idea: 1. e5 2. Nf3 3. c3 preparing d4, so that's a nice bonus.

Of course, they probably also said the Scotch was fine for lower-rateds...and then Kasparov played it (and won) in a WC match. 

Any opening can give the opponent problems...and often one that an opponent is unfamiliar with can give you an advantage which outweighs the (theoretical) superiority of essaying Everybody's Favorite Brand.  Besides which, after the opening the gods have placed the middle game, and if you have an even game there there is still doubtless plenty of play left... 

Yeah that one game wasn't my most brilliant, I decided to mess around with the kid before I mated him too. I think I won't stay with this one, it would be a nice suprise in otb, but if it is mianly suitable for beginners, I would like to learn something I can get better with. I think I might try the Scotch, with the Nb3 line, as it is aggressive and simply allows my bishops to develop, letting me start to attack. I know openings aren't that important at my level, so I think I will stick with that, as it is played even at the grandmaster level (magnus carlsen), and just focus more on mid/end game.

It looked like you weren't quite up to speed on the K+R v K ending, but you got there. The Scotch is straightforward and to the point, there's very little wrong with it and it gets the pieces moving - and, as you say, you can focus on the mid/end game. At our level, even if you do come out of the opening with a theoretical advantage you still have to have the necessary technique to exploit it, even if GMs can take that part for granted. :D

I'd say the Scotch, Italian. or Ruy Lopez are superior to the Ponzianni, though very few openings are unsound from the beginning. Also, 1200 is not a rating to brag about.