| This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. |
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| Moves | 1.c3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ECO | A00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent | Irregular chess opening | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Synonym(s) | Hempel's Opening | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chessgames.com opening explorer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Saragossa Opening or Hempel's Opening is a chess opening defined by the opening move
The name Saragossa Opening is derived from 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.
Opening with 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 Defence or Slav Defense (with colors reversed), two solid defenses for Black, but with an extra tempo; to the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, a fully respectable opening often played by grandmasters, after 1.c3 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.cxd4 d5; to a solid but passive type of Queen's Pawn Game after 1.c3 Nf6 2.d4 or 1.c3 d5 2.d4; or to a reversed Scandinavian Defense after 1.c3 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4!? Nc6 4.Qa4. 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 Nf6 5.Qc2 e5. Also reasonable is 1...f5, when 2.d4 transposes to a Dutch Defense where White has played the passive move c3.
The reply 1...c5 is also playable, but gives White more opportunity than other moves to transpose to standard openings where he may have a small advantage. The move 1...c5 2.e4 transposes to the Alapin Variation of the Sicilian Defence. The sequence 1...c5 2.d4 is also possible, when 2... cxd4 (2...e6 3.e4 d5, transposing to a French Defence after 4.e5 or 4.exd5, is also possible) 3.cxd4 d5 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 slight advantage.