Ponziani opening traps

There are a bunch of things your opponent could do wrong while playing the ponziani, which is almost a trap opening. Which ones do you know, would be great to know them all. Here are two of the most infamous, pretty similar though.

Playing the ponziani is a trap.

That's true. Black has better chances than white if he plays 3... d5 but I almost never see that line, so it doesn't worry me.

Yes, the best line for Black is 3. ... d5 , where the only answer is 4. Qa4 . It can be very tough for White.

For a similar Ponziani trap I usually play, succesfully, (see http://scacchi.vecchilibri.eu/partite/ponziani.html )

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nc6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Be2 {waiting move } Nxe4 {? takes the bait } 6. d5 Ne7 7. Qa4+ {! double threat } c6 8. Qxe4

one piece up

Ponziani is rather interesting.   just learned of it recently.

Any advice for white in this line?

d6

4...Nxe4 isn't a horrible move by black, it is just a different approach which is played most of the times

sammynoury, please explain what happens if 4..exd4.

This is very interesting opening.

can u explain how to win on d4

If Black plays on autopilot in the Ponz, he gets creamed.

Here's one of my games:

The Ponziani is very tricky. When I played on the Ponziani Power team we were very often winning by the 13th move.

There are thousands of ways Black can go wrong. Here is one of them from a game I played in 15 minutes per side chess about 4 years ago:

Actually if White knows the Ponziani lines he is fine after 3. c3   d5.

White must respond 4. Qa4. 

here is another 15 minute per side game...

I actually considered playing the Ponziani recently in an OTB game, but was put off by the line 3...d5 4.Qa4 Bd7.

You get something like: 4... exd4 5. e5 Ne4 6. Qe2 f5 7. exf6
d5 8. Nbd2 Qxf6 9. Nxe4 dxe4 10. Qxe4+ =

JMB2010   If I were playing the White side of the Ponziani, I would be glad to get the position after 3. ...d5  Qa4  Bd7.  The continuation usually goes like this:

15 minute per side game

15 minute per side game: