Ponziani Opening

Analysis provided by chess.com engine

Dave this is the Ng1 game you wanted to see.  I believe the draw existed at move 25.

I had hoped my opponent would push for the win because it was the only way he could lose.

kant  thanks for the game!

I am trying to defend my Ponziani championship against the dreaded Expertise .  

Dave, any comment on the Ng1 game.  You seemed very interested in seeing it.

kant

Your annotations are confusing to me as to what was actually played and what are notes.  I am working on the game.

kant   You went down one of the main side lines with 8. Ng1  e3!? and White only got a very small advantage from the opening. I followed the game to and through move 18.  Thank you for posting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

I will re-post it without the chess.com engine analysis.

Recent Vote Chess victory:

Kudos and Congratulations to my former Vote Chess Team, Ponziani Power, for winning their 14th in a row!

No matter how much some like to downgrade the opening, it sometimes gives good practical results.

It is not the best opening as The Ruy Lopez and English and Queens Gambit and 1. Nf3 are no doubt better. But it gives good practical results.

Annotations by Anand.

After 6. Nxe5  Ng6  the best moves for White are 7. Qd4 or 7. Qf3

the move 7.Bd3 is given ?! in Play the Ponziani and the above game is in that book.

It is often a mistake to play for a draw with White against strong opposition. [if that is what White thought he was doing--he just played inferior moves]  

I am hoping some gm will play 7. Qd4 some day and play for a win.

[Event "ICC 3 0"]

[Site "Internet Chess Club"]

[Date "2013.10.31"]

[Round "1"]

[White "WIM Svetla Yordanova"]

[Black "BrianWall"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ICCResult "White resigns"]

[WhiteElo "1904"]

[BlackElo "2047"]

[Opening "Ponziani: Fraser defense"]

[ECO "C44"]

[NIC "KP.05"]

[Time "04:29:08"]

[TimeControl "180+0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 Nxe4 5. d5 Bc5 6. Qe2 Nxf2 7. dxc6 Nxh1

8. Nxe5 O-O 9. g3 dxc6 10. Bg2 Nf2 11. Be3 Bxe3 12. Qxe3 Ng4 13. Nxg4 Bxg4

14. Nd2 Re8 15. Ne4 f5 {White resigns} 0-1

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WIM Svetla Yordanova vs Brian Wall     Ponziani Fraser defense 

  click and move       no notes

https://denverchess.com/Games/ViewPGN?id=4885

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WIM Svetla Yordanova vs Brian Wall     Ponziani Fraser defense 

  click and move       with embedded notes

https://denverchess.com/Games/ViewPGN?id=4886

obviously 6. Qe2 is a terrible move.

Canutus, i believe even black made mistake going into this line. Ofcourse Qe2 is probably blunder of a game, he should capture knight and Qd5 follows, if pawn f2 is taken. Hard to believe titled player would blunder such well known line in opening with so little lines to learn... Kinda embarassment, because she chose to play ponziani.

Most recent Ponziani Power win:

When I left Ponziani Power they had a Vote Chess

 winning streak of 12 in a row but one game they were winning for 13 in a row. 

Since then they had a rematch with the Pirate Crew and won that game also [PP had won the initial game vs Pirate Crew] 

Now Ponziani Power has won from another great team [please note they try and play only the very best teams] So now 15 in a row.  Will they make it to the top of the elo rating?

I do not know.  They deserve kudos in any event.

Does this mean the Ponziani is a "good" opening?  That would be very debatable as with best play the opening [or most any opening] should end in a draw.  The suggestion is that the Ponziani is a good practical opening for most players. That is all.  I doubt if any more super grand masters will play this opening.  They probably won't play the Kings Gambit either!

16... Na5 was probably not accurate.  We were probably winning by move 22.  I especially like our 23rd move; we gave back the pawn for lots of pressure.

From move 25, one of our teamates had this position analyzed to a forced win.

I wouldn't say forced win, though looking at it in retrospect I still can't find a major improvement for Black. The weak dark squares around the King were the subject of a lot of discussion by the team Rompiendo Fronteras in this game, and indeed our team as well as we searched for a way to exploit.

It just seemed to me that the position must be winning with the pawn on e7, an attack, and a clear line to defend against Black's only active plan (which they chose).

They did sort of fall apart at the end but White was winning pretty early on in the middlegame.