Ponzing About (conclusions)

SIX world's-best players have tried the Ponziani, and many other very strong GMs have also experimented with it.
Yet even at club level it remains little-played, and so often comes as a surprise.
White can get by without knowing much theory, but if he does know some theory, there is a very good chance he will know more than the opponent.
As I believe the six games in this series show, the Ponziani is above all for tactically minded players.
Perhaps the one downside to it is that, at move three, it is Black who gets to pick the main variation.
In a way this is a bit like the Open Sicilian, where Black gets to choose whether the game will be a Dragon, Najdorf, Scheveningen, Sveshnikov, etc.
At least with the Ponziani, Black's range of choice is much more limited.
Here, by way of inspiration, is the start of a game played by a friend at a tournament in the Czech Republic. I was at the same congress, and have not stopped hearing about it ever since.
Raymond Kearsley (1752) - Evgeny Golcman (2209)
Olomouc Seniors 2014
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 d5
Four years earlier, against the same opponent, Golcman played 3...Nf6, and won, thanks to a blunder, in 26 moves. This time he came to the board having, presumably, prepared the sharper 3...d5.
4.Qa4 dxe4!? 5.Nxe5 Qd5 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bc4 Qd6?! 8.0-0
As in the Capablanca game covered in part four of the series, where the MPs played the probably better 7...Bd7, White can also play 8.d3.
8...Be7 9.d3 exd3?!
With the king protected along the e file by a bishop, this looks natural, but is probably a mistake. However, a move such as 9...Nf6, the main choice of Stockfish10 and Komodo10, is no bed of roses as 10.dxe4 leaves White a pawn up, and with the better structure, unless Black wants to go in for 10...Nxe4 11.Rd1, when 11...Qf6 can be met by 12.Bd5! Qxf2+ 13.Kh1, with White winning a piece.

White to make his 10th move

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10.Bf4!
By no means the only good move in the position, but a shocker to meet over the board.
10...Qxf4
10...Qd7!? has been tried, but White is much better after 11.Rd1 (or 11.Bxd3).
11.Qxc6+ Kd8 12.Bb5!
The key move - I told you the Ponziani is for the tactically minded! White protects his light-square bishop and at the same time threatens mate on e8, so Black has no time to save his queen's rook.
12...Nf6 13.Qxa8 Ng4 14.g3 Qh6 15.h4
Black's mating threats are over, but White still has big threats of his own, eg Qd5+, and Bxd3 followed by Bf5, so Black has no time to conjure up new threats. White is completely winning, and did go on to claim the full point, albeit after many adventures.