also called it "Staunton's Opening", directing those seeking a definition of "Ponziani's Game" to the former name. Green referred to 3...f5 as "Ponziani's Counter Gambit". Chess historian H. J. R. Murray in his celebrated 1913 work A History of Chess called the opening simply the "Staunton", explaining that he was using "the ordinary names of the Openings as used by English players of the present day". James Mason in his treatise The Art of Chess (Fourth Edition c. 1910?) referred to the opening as the "Ponziani–Staunton Attack". The famous German Handbuch des Schachspiels, which went through eight editions between 1843 and 1916, called it the "Englisches Springerspiel" (English Knight's Game). The Reverend E.E. Cunnington in The Modern Chess Primer (Thirteenth Edition 1933) referred to it as the "Ponziani Opening (sometimes called Staunton's)". Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Champion, in his 1895 treatise The Modern Chess Instructor (Part II), called the opening the "Ponziani Opening", as did his successor, Emanuel Lasker, in Lasker's Manual of Chess. Similarly, Frank Marshall in Chess Openings, the authors of Modern Chess Openings (Second Edition 1913), and Siegbert Tarrasch in The Game of Chess (1931, English translation 1938) called it "Ponziani's Opening". William Cook in The Chess Players' Compendium (Fifth Edition 1910) called it "Ponziani's Game", while Francis Joseph Lee and Gossip in The Complete Chess – Guide (1903) called it "Ponziani's Knight's Game". Contemporary authors likewise call it the "Ponziani Opening", "Ponziani's Opening", or simply the "Ponziani". Introduction and overview The Ponziani is rarely played today except as a surprise weapon, because Black has the pleasant choice between easily and attempting to obtain an advantage with sharper play. White's third move prepares to build a powerful with 4.d4, a logical objective also seen in the more popular Ruy Lopez and Giuoco Piano. However, 3.c3 is somewhat premature because the move: 1) takes away the most natural square for White's , 2) temporarily creates a on d3, and 3) a pawn rather than a piece, leaving White behind in development and not well placed to meet a counterattack in the . Moreover, unlike in the Giuoco Piano, where White's d4 advance attacks Black's on c5, in the Ponziani d4 will not gain a . On the positive side, the move 3.c3 creates a second diagonal for the white queen. As early as 1904, Marshall wrote that, "There is no point in White's third move unless Black