My thoughts are that a "meh" move like 3.c3 in open games should be attacked as soon as possible.
The Ponziani Counter-gambit 3...f5!? scores around 60% for me as Black.
Here's a recent game 
Ponziani opening traps
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Interesting, as Stockfish assesses 5 Nd4 as about +0.7 in favour of white!
4 d4 seems to give better results but is only assessed as +0.3 though.
Jan 29, 2026
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#624
GDring wrote:
Interesting, as Stockfish assesses 5 Nd4 as about +0.7 in favour of white!
4 d4 seems to give better results but is only assessed as +0.3 though.
Yes engines generally don't like gambits one little bit.
With perfecty defence, the player with the pawn up will almost always prevail.
That's why (most of the time 
) it's a good job my opponent isn't 3600 ELO.
Do you mean: because of his incredible accuracy?