PANFR wrote on 08/20/15 at 18:47:51:

Today Tony Kosten published a small review of this opening see https://www.chesspublishing.com/content/1/index.htm#pon
He writes : If White is really accurate he might be able to draw, but the practical problems are considerable - I have 100% with Black in quick games. This would be enough to put me off ever playing the Ponziani.

This is the opposite of what PANFR wrote in 2015.

As usual the truth is somewhere in the middle. For both sides this is a very difficult to play opening. White and black have often to play single moves which makes that the player with the better memory/ analysis often prevails.

Lately I suffered a few defeats online in the line below:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Bc5 6.dxc6 Bxf2+ 7.Ke2 Bb6 8.Qd5 Nf2 9.Rg1 0-0 10.cxb7 Bxb7 11.Qxb7 Qf6 12.Qd5 c6 13.Qd2 e4 14.Nd4 e3 15.Qc2 Rae8 16.Qf5 which is playable and not discussed in Tony's notes. The optimal play is impossible to find without assistance of a computer and continues with 16... Qd6 (so not Bxd4 winning a piece) 17.Na3 Bxd4 18.Nc4 Qxh2 19.cxd4 g6 (so not grabbing the rook) 20.Qxd7 Nd1 (instead of grabbing the rook, throwing another piece away) 21.Qxc6 Qxg1 (finally) 22.Qf3 Re4 (of course throwing another rook as other moves would be too easy) 23.Nxe3 Nxe3 (still offering the rook) 24.Qxe4 Nxf1 25.Bh6 Qh2 26.Rxf1 Qxh6 which should be an equal endgame or even more funny 25...Ng3+ 26.Kf3 (did I say only move?) Qxa1 27.Kxg3 Qxb2 28.Bxf8 Qb8+ 29.Kh3 and the resulting queen-endgame should be drawn despite the extra pawn for black as the d-pawn is strong.

That is only one branch so just to say that things are not simple for practical play.

kylemeister wrote on 08/15/15 at 04:22:40:

On my blog I already showed that 12. Qa6 is strongly countered by e4 instead of Rae8.
The quality of Jeroens analysis are often a bit shaky as he is mainly backing up for one side but not giving a full objective evalution.
http://chess-brabo.blogspot.be/2015/07/14x-sos.html
" If we look at my comments of the game then we detect that the concept isn't waterproof against a detailed analysis. White has several paths to play for an advantage but needs to play exact and aggressive chess."
" Well the name SOS already explains to us that the system is mainly based on the element of surprise and the fact that normal moves only lead to exactly the kind of positions in which the strength of the system is hidden."
" I read on the internet that some players therefore regularly change lines by jumping from one SOS number to another so the element of surprise is kept. "

Toshak wrote on 06/29/15 at 20:03:49:

I found one game: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/ponz-says-he-can-refute-ponziani?page=9


I believe the evaluation of 5... Bc5 mainly depends on this position. Only black can deviate on several points without being (at least slightly) worse as e.g. in the game mentioned above.
I studied the final position quite some time but there are simply too many possibilities. Today I think it is just balanced.

So assuming black doesn't blunder (which is very likely to happen in OTB if white deviates with a weaker but not yet studied move), black decides if he wants a forced draw or a playable position.

To analyze this opening I used for the very first time, the method of speed-analyzing (earlier mentioned by e.g. Vass) which means the engine gets very little time to analyze a position but as compensation it can analyze 100 x more positions than I normally can do in the same period. The result was very acceptable but I admit that here and there I helped a bit. I also discovered that Komodo is much weaker in this kind of speed-analyzing than Stockfish but maybe this just has to do with the nature of the position.

Toshak wrote on 05/31/15 at 20:55:58:

Black is 2 pieces down and engines of + 3000 rating are scoring miserable in this position: +6, =7, -1 (so in total I found 14 games in my engine database). It is not simple at all and pretty much impossible to play at the board for a human.

Anyway the best move seems to be 12.Na3 with incredible complications but leading eventually to a equal/balanced position so not really better than the familiar lines of the Ponziani.

Hmm.  This page has a game from last year, annotated (in Dutch) by IM Twan Burg.  He thinks White should have varied on move 14, but says he can't say who is better at the end of the variation.

http://schaaksite.nl/page.php?al=hmc-calder-grijpt-naast-de-beker

I wonder.  Over the years I've seen evaluations in books ranging from unclear to ±, but have had the impression that the latter is probably more accurate.