Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit | Still Good at 1500s ELO!
#ponzianisteinitzgambit #italian #friedliverattack
The Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit is a rather risky but fun counterattack by Black against the Fried Liver Attack in the Italian Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bf6 Nf6 4. Ng5 Nxe4). According to the evaluation, it objectively shouldn't work as White is better at [+3]. However, in practice, I'm finding that it is still a potent weapon against opponents in the 1500s in rapid!
The first game is the ideal line! White persists with the Fried Liver Attack (5. Nxf7) and this makes the gambit immediately worthwhile with the evaluation now flipping to [-0.5], giving the advantage to Black. With (5... Qh4) White is facing a mate-in-1 threat, and one of the most common and intuitive responses (6. Qf3) is a disastrous blunder [-11]! After I advance a second knight into the centre (6... Nd4) there is now overwhelming pressures on White's king. In this game, my opponent in an annoying and unsportsman-like manner, stalled the game by not playing a move for 9 minutes in this position. When they finally moved, they gave no apologies or explanation, and hung checkmate!
The second game was another Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit against a 1600-rated player. They played the critical move for White against the gambit (5. Bxf7+) and Black is potentially in some trouble. However, it isn't easy to play the position for White, especially if they aren't familiar with the gambit. I'm forced to move my king (5... Ke7) and White has another critical move to play, which is (6. d4). This, however, is not obvious, and in this match, my opponent played the natural looking (6. Nxe4) instead. However, this brings the evaluation back to [+0.5].
After capturing White's bishop and White bringing out their queen (6... Kxf7 7. Qf3+), I make a potentially fatal blunder! I couldn't remember whether I should bring my king to g8 or e8 against the check, and eventually chose (7... Kg8). This was a major mistake [+9] as White can force win my queen. However, again, it is not easy to find (8. Ng5 Qe7 9. Qd5+ Qe6 10. Nxe6). White played what seemed to be a sensible developing move (8. d3) but this was a blunderous "miss", with the evaluation now favouring Black at [-2]. So incredibly, despite White finding the first critical move, and me making a game-ending error, I still managed to enter the middle game with good control of the centre, and a slight advantage!
This is one of the powers of the Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit! It is hard to navigate the position for White, and perhaps, easier for Black, especially if you have the familiarity in the position. My opponent was rated almost 200 ELO above me and yet, it still worked!
The rest of the game was quite complex and was equal. I won a good advantage when White blundered one of their rooks, and we entered a rook and knight versus rook pair endgame. However, my opponent played well, and I couldn't find a way in the game to break through their position and take the advantage. Eventually, as I had about a minute left on the clock versus their 17 minutes, I hoped to play solid but shuffling moves and the game ended in a draw by threefold repetition. GG!
Game 1: https://www.chess.com/game/live/69569172789
Game 2: https://www.chess.com/game/live/69467746457
