Saragossa Opening
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- This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
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The Saragossa Opening is a chess opening defined by the opening move
- 1.c3
It is named after the Spanish city of Zaragoza. In 1922 a theme tournament requiring the players to open with 1.c3 was arranged in Mannheim with three participants, Siegbert Tarrasch, Paul Leonhardt and Jacques Mieses, which Tarrasch won.
1.c3 is an unambitious move. It opens a diagonal for the queen, but it makes only a timid claim to the center. It prepares to play d4, but White could simply have played that move immediately. Also, the pawn on c3 has the disadvantage of taking the c3 square away from the knight. It is not a terrible move, however, and is likely to transpose to a Caro-Kann Defense or Slav Defense, two solid defenses for Black, but with an extra tempo, or to a solid but passive type of Queen's Pawn Game after 1.c3 Nf6 2.d4 or 1.c3 d5 2.d4. Since White usually plays more aggressively in the opening, the Saragossa is considered an irregular opening, classified as A00 by the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings.
Black has a number of responses, the most common being 1...d5, 1...e5 and 1...Nf6. After 1...d5, White can essay the Plano Gambit, 2. e4?, in effect a weird response to the Scandinavian Defense. After 2...dxe4, 3. Qa4+ recovers the pawn, but Black gets quick development with 3...Nc6 4.Qxe4+ Be7 followed by ...Nf6.
Note that one of the weaker reasonable responses for Black to the Saragossa is 1...c5 2.d4 cxd4 (2...e6 3.e4 d5, transposing to a French Defense after 4.e5 or 4.exd5, is also possible) 3.cxd4 d5, which transposes to a regular Exchange Variation of the Slav Defense (usually reached by 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5), which gives White a small advantage. After 1...c5, 2.e4 is also reasonable, transposing to the Alapin Variation of the Sicilian Defense, again with a slight advantage to White.
