Top-4 Ponziani Opening Traps - Remote Chess Academy

In today’s video lesson, you will learn the top 4 chess opening traps from the Ponziani Opening, which happens after the first moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3. It is one of the oldest chess openings, but your most of your opponents are likely to get into trouble as the obvious moves are losing mistakes. More than 2.9 million players make a losing mistake in just the 3rd move of the game. I’ll also share with you a couple of really cool traps in the main line when Black plays 4…Nxe4. In this article, we’ll be exploring some exciting opening traps in the Ponziani Opening, a classic chess opening that involves playing pawn c3. You’ll learn some traps that your opponents may not know, and we’ll be focusing on a particular scenario that often occurs when your opponent is unprepared for this opening. We’ll also cover a sneaky move that can catch your opponent off guard and lead to a winning position. So, let’s dive in and explore the Ponziani Opening and its traps together! Trap 1 Let’s look at the Ponziani opening and the most common response from Black. 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Now after pawn c3, we’re going to play pawn d4 and build up those beautiful pawns in the center. Therefore, Black will need to do something about that. Usually, they will play Nf6, just making their development move, and then you play pawn d4. 3…Nf6 4. d4 d6 Now we’re going to talk about the main response of Black in a moment, but before that, let me share with you what often happens when your opponent is unprepared against this particular opening system. Because Black does not want to go into complications, they will usually play d6. 5. d5 Ne7 6. Bg5 In this case, you can push the pawn forward to d5, The knight has to retreat. And now you can play a bit tricky move, Bg5. You pretend like you’re just developing a bishop and put some pin potentially on this diagonal. 6…Nxe4 7. Qa4+ Black is very likely to think that you just blundered the central pawn on e4. And most of your opponents will gladly capture the pawn because it looks so advantageous. Winning a pawn, attacking this bishop right here looks like Black is just dominating. But in fact, it was a trap because you play Qa4 with a double attack to the king and the knight. Thus, Black can safely resign right now. Even if Black is not trapped, you just keep playing, and you still have a good position. Trap 2 Now let’s look at this statistic in Lichess database in the Ponziani opening after 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 3…Bc5 is the second most popular move with over 2.9 million players playing this, which is a relatively obvious mistake. It gives White an option to push the pawn forward to d4 with a tempo, which gives White what they want and an additional tempo. But it’s hard to explain why so many people actually play this bad move, Bc5. And now let me show you how to refute Black playing Bc5. Trap 3 Now, let’s look at the main line of the Ponziani opening. The main line is if Black plays 3..Nf6 Trap 4  Let’s look at a more solid approach for Black this time, which leads to one of most beautiful traps you will see. So, there you have it, some exciting and sneaky traps to try out in the Ponziani Opening. Whether you’re a seasoned chess player or just starting, these traps are sure to catch your opponents off guard and give you an advantage in the game. So, go ahead and give them a try, and see how many opponents fall for these clever tactics. Happy playing! If you’ve enjoyed reading this article and want to see the concepts discussed in action, you’re in luck! We have created a video lesson that covers the same material in a more visual and interactive way. You can find the PGN of these opening traps below: 

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