I am David Taylor, coauthor of Play the Ponziani. Sometimes I see a posting of how dull and boring is the Ponziani. Those who say this have little knowledge of the Ponziani and are usually just parroting what they have heard.
The Ponziani is a dynamic opening if you know the theory or some of the theory.
I will be glad to address any questions on this opening.
If you know the theory, you know that black basically equalizes in something around 10 moves by playing natural moves and it's garbage only useful for beating 1300s who have never seen it before and are afraid to play Ne7 after d5.
What about 7. Nxg6 hxg6 8. Qe2 f5 9. f3
This seems to be 1-0, someone tell me where I went wrong.
Correct for black is 7. Nxg6 hxg6 8. Qe2 Qe7 with about an equal game. However 7. Nxg6 is not the best move for White.
I used to know a 1900/2000 player who played the Ponziani. He always hoped for 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf3 4. d4 exd4 5. e5...with a violent attack.
And anyone numb enough to play into this, pretty much went under by move 20. Otherwise, the game was either a drawish, dud (3...Nf6 lines) or tactical nightmares (3... d5 lines).
Personally, I prefer to get my King's Bishop out on move 3 and then castle early, keeping options open, as stated above. Though, like with many discredited lines, you can play it if you like and even do fairly well with it.
And was the 1900/2000 rated player up on the theory of the Ponziani? Yes, when you first learn to play chess you may move 1. e4 and then get a Knight out and then get a Bishop out and then 0-0 ASAP and take things from there. There is nothing wrong with that--but as we learn more and more chess--we find other ways to play.