I maintain that unless you are playing Brian Wall you will not be in a bad position. ...
I don't have that luxury, he's in my neck of the woods. Guess I will just have to stick to my normal repertoire as white and hope for the best.
Play the English Opening against him.
Breaking News:
Ponziani Power Vote Chess Team up to 13th in the July ELO Rankings (14 places higher than in April)
So...if you would like to join an incredible Vote Chess Team we have 2 running atm...one has just started...come join us at Ponziani Power!!! 
No just visited Joel Johnson for a month to help out on his next book, Positional Attacks. played some GMs, IMs, FMs, LMs and talented youth, had a great time in the 120 degreee heat.
Full disclosure
0-1 Brian resigns to teenager
[Event"January 2012 DCC Tuesdays"]
[Site "2400 South Ash, Denver CO"]
[Date "2013.01.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "BrianWall"]
[Black "Bill O'Neil"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "2200"]
[BlackElo "1628"]
[Opening "Ponziani: Jaenisch counter-attack"]
[ECO "C44"]
[NIC "KP.05"]
[Time "8 PM"]
[TimeControl "Game/70 minutes plus a five second delay"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. e5 Nd5 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nbd2 O-O
8. Bc4 Nb6 9. Be2 Qe8 10. O-O Be7 11. Ne4 d6 12. exd6 cxd6 13. Bf4 d5 14.
Nd6 Qd8 15. Nxc8 Rxc8 16. Rc1 Bd6 17. Ne5 f6 18. Nxc6 bxc6 19. Bxd6 Qxd6 20.
Qd2 Rc7 21. Rc2 f5 22. Re1 Nd7 23. Bd3 g6 24. a3 Kg7 25. Qg5 Nf6 26. Rce2
Ne4 27. Qh4 Qf6 28. Qxf6+ Rxf6 29. f3 Ng5 30. h4 Nf7 31. Re7 Rxe7 32. Rxe7
a5 33. Ra7 f4 34. Rxa5 Kh6 35. Ra7 Kh5 36. Kf2 Kxh4 37. a4 h5 38. Bxg6 Rxg6
39. Rxf7 Kg5 40. a5 Rg8 41. Rb7 Re8 42. a6 Rc8 43. b4 Re8 44. a7 Ra8 45. Ke1
Kf6 46. Rc7 Ke6 47. Rxc6+ Kd7 48. Ra6 Kc7 49. b5 Kb7 50. Kf2 Rxa7 51. Rxa7+
Kxa7 52. g3 fxg3+ 53. Kxg3 Kb6 54. f4 Kxb5 55. Kh4 Kc6 56. Kxh5 Kd6 57. Kg5
Ke6 58. Kg6 Ke7 59. Kf5 Kf7 60. Ke5 Kg6 61. f5+ Kf7 62. Kxd5 Kf6 63. Ke4 Ke7
64. Ke5 Kf7 65. d5 Ke7 66. f6+ Kf7 67. d6 Ke8 68. Ke6
1-0 Bill balks
Just so you don't think I hate the Ponziani
It's not the opening, but the Cult of Ponziani that I find objectionable. There are countless openings that do not confer any advantage, but the Cult of Ponziani argues that this opening is at least as good as the Spanish because it doesn't lose. And it's better than any other opening because there is less theory on it.
I too still play the Ponziani occasionally, but only as a surprise weapon. For Brian, playing a main line Queen's Gambit would be a surprise weapon!
I tried the Ponziani for a year or two as white and did well with it at first , mainly due to the surprise value . My opponents came unprepared to meet it and even players over 2000 fell into simple traps in it . When my opponents came prepared I was getting nothing from the opening and went back to the Ruy . I just checked 2 data bases and both showed that white does actually win a little more in the Ponziani ( 2 -3 % more ) and this also surprised me . They also showed that white drew much less and lost about 7 % more in the Ponziani than in the Ruy so I believe that the Ruy is still better overall . I am certainly not comfortable as white in several lines of the Ponziani and the Fraser defense is one of them ...
It is possible [and I am not saying this is true] you are not up or were not up on the very latest theory.
The last stats I saw were Ponziani win 41% loss 29% draw 30%^
Ruy Lopez win 40% loss 27% draw 33%
And then this important stat. Ponziani Power winning 13 games in a row which is less than 1 chance in 100,000 if by chance alone.
ponz, do you want to check any other variations?
also, i want to say that i may or may not have found an interesting black line in the fraser - if anyone wants to try it in an informal centaur game, let me know :P
The thing about the Ponziani is that 3 or 4 years ago people were saying really stupid things about that opening. Undeserved. That is one reason I started defending the opening. That is also why I started putting a lot of effort into vote chess.
Yes, there are some people who are very much for the Ponziani but that is mainly people who belong to Ponziani Power vote chess and saw how we played team after very good team with super results.
At the highest levels 2400 and above the Ruy Lopez is better.
However for under 2400 the Ponziani has the great advantage of about ten times less theory to learn [than the Ruy]
ponz, do you want to check any other variations?
also, i want to say that i may or may not have found an interesting black line in the fraser - if anyone wants to try it in an informal centaur game, let me know :P
Brian
Which side do you want me to play?
i want to play as black
OK how do we start?
1.e4 I guess...
The thing about the Ponziani is that 3 or 4 years ago people were saying really stupid things about that opening. Undeserved. That is one reason I started defending the opening. That is also why I started putting a lot of effort into vote chess.
Yes, there are some people who are very much for the Ponziani but that is mainly people who belong to Ponziani Power vote chess and saw how we played team after very good team with super results.
At the highest levels 2400 and above the Ruy Lopez is better.
However for under 2400 the Ponziani has the great advantage of about ten times less theory to learn [than the Ruy]
For under 2400 I still don't believe the ponziani is as good as the ruy. As black I would feel much more comfortable playing against the ponziani than against the ruy lopez. In fact, if I knew my opponent was going to play the ponziani I might even play 1...e5 instead of the sicilian (which I always play).
I maintain that unless you are playing Brian Wall you will not be in a bad position. You can choose one of the myraid of lines where Black has to extend many moves in the future to get a draw and it is very unlikely for any player to have first studied the Ponziani to any degree and then to have studied the Fraser variation where there are literally thousands of moves and hundreds of variations he would have to be prepared for.
The Ponziani player on the other hand just needs to learn one long line and if his opponent is not ready for that line [which he will not be] then this is to the favor of the Ponziani player.
Why do we play chess at all when we know it is a draw with best play?
It is because of our competitive spirit [and using our utoks and using our competitive spirit] there are ways to get around obstacles such as the Fraser Defense [and the obstacle that the game of chess is a draw with best play]