Saragossa Opening
1. c3
The Saragossa Opening is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. c3. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 26,829 times by this move order. White won 48%, 4% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 1… e5 (35% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 65; best line 1… e6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bf4 d5 4. Nf3)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 1 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/2P5/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1- PGN
1. c3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 12,948 | |
| 1500-1999 | 11,479 | |
| 2000+ | 2,402 | |
| All | 26,829 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1… e5 | 9,321 (35%) | |
| 1… d5 | 6,915 (26%) | |
| 1… Nf6 | 2,244 (8%) | |
| 1… e6 | 1,947 (7%) | |
| 1… c5 | 1,748 (7%) | |
| 1… g6 | 1,110 (4%) | |
| 1… c6 | 1,071 (4%) | |
| 1… d6 | 797 (3%) |
Master games
1,458 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 15%, Black 40%). The strongest:
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2847) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2758) 1-0 · Magnus Carlsen Inv Prelim · 2021-03-13
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Peter Svidler (2723) 1/2-1/2 · FIDE Steinitz Mem Open · 2020-05-15
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2864) – GM Sam Shankland (2718) 1-0 · Chessable Masters Prelim · 2022-05-20
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2780) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2786) 0-1 · chess.com SpeedChess 2023 · 2023-09-14
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2789) – GM Erigaisi Arjun (2771) 1-0 · Checkmate: USA vs India · 2025-10-04
Search all games of the Saragossa Opening and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- GM sillyMASTER (2815) – FM Guary1 (2814) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- Fraysinator (2652) – tourdefra (2760) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- GM mircica (2690) – Natah_Flo (2669) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.