Ponziani Opening: Instructive Winning Strategy

let's play nymca i never played before the first side challenge we will have a quick 10 minute quiet game we will try to be

instructive

here i will play e4 opponent with rating oh we have played before we played three times before so the opponent has a rating of just over two thousand it was not supposed that the world would end in 2012 there was a movie oh okay time for panziani so d5 is one of the best most challenging moves against

ponziani

and the move to play here is the queen a4 the benefit for d5 is if i If we had I have to take the queen, I don't have a knight c3, but after the queen a4 things get complicated, it's a complicated position if Black hasn't seen this before, it's not easy to know what to do if you don't know the main line because I'm pinning the knight, there is still pressure against both pawns.

The d7 bishop breaks the pin but obstructs the queen from defending d5. Now this is playable. It's a tactic, but I'm going to raise a pawn. Thanks midnight js, yes it is after midnight. for me it's 12 53 am the week is just beginning it's monday for me and probably most people too um yeah so the d4 knight attacked my queen move all the way back to support the knights i actually passed For a phase of playing this with black against Ponziani, there are some interesting ideas, but white is supposed to be a little better here, at least according to the engine.

Remember looking for this with dried fish a few years ago and John, welcome back. John gives Cl Smith as a gift. Shout out to Cl Smith. for john we have a john commando i think so oh the giant commando links to john bartholomew wait that's cool shout out to 95 horacio here we go ok so yeah this is a hit move to my queen, if I play queen g3, it can get strange. because the bishop d6 won the pawn I ran into the rook g8 I don't think I want to deal with that so the queen e2 might be the most solid method of fixing the e-pawn getting ready to play d3 yes, d3 looks attractive now because, for one On the other hand, this pawn can be a strength that controls space but in this case it seems more of a weakness oh there are still some interesting lines I think I'll go ahead and take um because Black could regain castling he actually defended the pawn with tactics because if needs I can't get his rookie eight back and Black will probably choose between taking first or the rookie eight first.

Both movements are interesting. When I sleep? I sleep when I'm not awake. OK. Bishop e3 seems reasonable. I'm actually not sure if I want to. To castle on the kingside or queenside, there is some debate about where the king is safer and Black is probably more prepared to attack on the kingside, so you could be flexible. The d2 knight seems natural, just one real square is developed for the knight and the main goal is just to be solid like I'm doing I don't need to go crazy I just want to complete the development simplify not getting matched or brutally attacked how are the arrows made? arrows it's just a matter of right clicking and dragging you can't do it on mobile you need a mouse and if you have a keyboard you can hold shift and make them different color combinations of shift and alt apologies to those who are color blind .

Have I ever been to any African country? Yes, I went to Senegal in 2019. That's it. the only african country i have been to chen's huge i still don't know what that means what does it mean welcome back daniel newman chess who donated there were some donations from chenza men in a recent broadcast yes i think i won the queen of the castle side here on I'm actually not sure what I mean, this looks good too this is really difficult I guess castling there is a queen here if I castle on the queen side it gets a little sharper but then I can launch an attack of my own, let's castle the queen side the queen very possible black will start to break in uh in various ways with the pawns another move to consider is the queen d4 I'm just going for a queen exchange the queen exchange would simplify a lot of things alexa what does chen's amendment mean?

Winnie Okola known professionally as Kenza is a Canadian singer, record producer and music video director from Vancouver no that's not what they said alexa calm down she was telling me who kenza is too f4 okay too. The first question is what the black guy is trying to do. Do you do this movement? He just stares at my very solid mini pawn. chain um the queen the queen likes to swing but I can't because I'm controlling all these squares so f4 would just kick the bishop back and it gives me some initiative. I could first look to optimize my rook, I could also go for the However, changing f4 is a bit of a compromise because then I can't move like I can't move back to f3 and there are cases where I want the pawn on f3 to just restrict the bishop of light squares so yeah I'm thinking rook which is more flexible I'm not afraid of this although maybe that's what bobby fischer would do and bishop g4 then I play f3 I think the plan is to play f4 bishop d6 and then oh bishop d4 there is the queen f4 I guess I eventually want to exchange the rooks on the e-file maybe some idea bishop g5 f4 there is a little trap if I play the rook ada bishop g5 and thread maybe a slow plan is to play h3 just controlling this preparing g4 and then rolling the pawns like f4 g4 because f4 comes with tempo oh b5 well now I ask where my bishop moves.

This is natural, but then it might get hit again, so I think it's probably a little better. Bishop d3, I guess then a6 reigns, I guess b1. b4 c4 actually b4 the queen would hang up so b4's d3 bishop immediately and maybe just take it I'll do this oh and rmt cheering 200 saying are you in a

ponziani

mood tonight? uh yeah, I guess a ponziani describes my mood describes the The

opening

of this game for those just joining is an interesting line in Ponziani once early. I'm trying to keep it. I want to start the broadcast with a fair game.

Well, now there's some tension between the bishops. I mean. exchange move as exchange and then queen d3. I'm not employing my usual crazy aggressive gambit style because my opponent is basically the one who gave it to the pawn, so I'm just trying to be controlled, be solid, oh no, my pawn, I should know if Black takes, I play g3 um essentially trapping the bishop and then the h1 rook would win the bishop. Now, a principle I've mentioned before in previous broadcasts, but when you have a final set of bishops of the same color, regardless of rooks, if they are rooks. are they on the board or not, um, both players in this case should put their pawns on clear squares, oh, unless bishops are exchanged, which I probably don't care, I was thinking this, but that just loses our rooks, my bishop would be pinned, so maybe g3. or maybe king d2 king d2 actually looks better yes, the bishops are exchanged, then the color of the squares the pawns are on is less relevant and what is more relevant is the safety of the king or the activity of the king the king's safety is less relevant when there is only a casual or Ranked rook ending I usually don't care when I make challenges for spectators.

Viewers can decide if they want the game to be ranked. Wow, it's Minlae. What's happening? Minlae GM Menley. You arrive just in time for the king's pawn endgame. Greetings to Minlae. I think we have minimal command, so we exchange everything except kings and pawns, and since I'm a pawn up I don't even need to calculate, it's a pretty routine win, especially since my king has more. active I have one or two healthy pawn islands and now we will see how to win at the end of the game when you are only one pawn ahead and the goal really is to create a passing pawn on the side I have the majority on, so I have four against three, um, so the plan is to just start advancing c4c5, yeah, how many people would feel confident

winning

this with white against a strong player, so I feel like this kind of endgame is a good exercise, if you're a decent late game player, you should be able to beat a grandmaster from this target position, but it might depend on time, nerves, etc.

Well, now I have some options. I'm going to start with c5, kick out the king and then I can decide whether to play d6 or make both moves, I should win. I think what I'll do is take even though d6 looks really overwhelming, so, like it's hard. for my king to come in, um, I wouldn't want to have a situation where my king can't come in and then I can't progress, but when I take it, I'm already imagining some zug's van where every time the king backs away, I You will be able to advance and then start to progress, so Black will try to make waiting moves with the pawns.

Eventually the pawn moves will end. Actually, if f6 I have king e5, so I don't even need to do it to make more pawn moves. because one last note if a5 just a3 is simple i will play g3 there is actually an interesting way to win this position which the opponent could give up so we may not see it but he could have come in and taken the pawn and finally won with queen on the king side, but I want to illustrate a

winning

technique that might actually be the most efficient way to win, like this little chess puzzle.

White moves mate in five. White kc5 ne6 c7 e5 f6 Black kc8. f7 wait wait wait wait I need to take one position at a time oh black actually ok after the game I will share what line I was thinking um black allowed me to promote the c pawn there is a line where I would queen with mate ok so this it's not a stalemate because this pawn has three legal moves and that's mate, okay, so it was quite an

instructive

game, so the broadcast begins, it was a ponziani

opening

, uh, a bit complicated with queen a4. they won an early pawn, black didn't get as much compensation, black's mistakes were a little more subtle, like changing all the rooks, it was probably one of the biggest mistakes, when you are blocking this position you should really try to stay on the minus a rook on the board take take and then king f8 is a better way to resist, but it's still probably very close to winning for white.

Oh so the line I wanted to show because it's typical in king pawn endings if the c8 king i wouldn't be promoting my c pawn but it would essentially put the king in neutral oh yesterday's sleep schedule yeah it's the 1 am for me, it's probably a strange moment for some other spectators too, so the king has no moves but the pawn has a move and after I take this pawn it has a move and then I can promote to a rook with mate to style points, so anyway that's what I was looking for one more thing if we go back to the main line opening here and it's actually the best move.

As the main line theory says here, it is not an easy move to play if you are not familiar with it, but it is easy to play f6, maybe it is easy to play if you follow the rule, always play f6 because it is the most effective to defend. the e pawn other moves like this or this defend e5 but lose d5 so f6 and then I think this is a main line bishop here attacking the knight and then 97. So it's a little awkward for Black, but it's a reputable game. line, if you know it well anyway, I'll probably put it on YouTube.

I know YouTube likes Ponziani's content. I guess I hope Twitch likes it too, so another Ponziani video for the YouTube channel. Twitch chat may be saying hello to YouTube. Youtube says hello to Twitch Chat If you have Prime you can subscribe for free or you can give away subs