Transitions arising from Saragossa opening

• Saragossa opening --> Indian defense 1. c3 Nf6 2. d4
• Saragossa opening --> Torre Attack: Fianchetto defense 1. c3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Bg5
• Saragossa opening --> London System 1. c3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Bf4
• Saragossa opening --> Reversed Slav defense 1. c3 Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. Nf3 c5
• Saragossa opening --> Danish gambit 1. c3 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. e4
• Saragossa opening --> Ponziani opening 1. c3 e5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Nf3
• Saragossa opening --> Giuoco Piano: main line 1. c3 e5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Bc5 4. Bc4
• Saragossa opening --> Sicilian defense: Alapin variation 1. c3 c5 2. e4
• Saragossa opening --> French defense: normal variation 1. c3 Nc6 2. d4 e6 3. e4 d5 appeared in Lucena-Quintana (1515)

I certainly forgot something, please point it out.

Saragossa opening… Pirc  1. c3 d6 2. d4 or e4

All right, cool, thanks Dave.

Hi Yigor. I am working on this c3. I summarized  basic Saragossa variations from a book by Ferdinand Schmidt on Saragossa- that summary is on my Chess.com profile in my club of one, me, on Saragossa Opening. Feel free to join my club, I would honored. I just "lifted" your transitions for my own use.  Can I have your permission to add your transitions to my summary of Schmidt? I will credit you, of course. 

Hahaha ... all right, I joined it. Now it's a club of 2! Yeah, sure, U can use my description at your convenience.

These two are missing.

Formation: Cabbage Attack:
1. c3 e5 2. a3 d5 3. b3 Nf6 4. Bb2 Nc6 5. a4 Bd6 6. g3 O-O 7. e3

Bending Gambit:
1. c3 e5 2. e4 Nc6 3. f4

Aside from that, I also noticed that the Hippopotamus attack contains a c3 move, so it might be modified to also fit in? O.O

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/hippopotamus-attacks

Ok, cool additions!

This would still not justify the Saragossa as a legit opening though.

I guess that's a subjective viewpoint.

I mean, it's not bad, but you can do so much more in your first move. It's quite right that there's virtually no theory on it, apart from the transpositions you've shared, but even in those instances it's much better to just follow the usual line if you're going to transposition into a more known opening.

It can also be a good weapon to outplay your opponents in opening preparation in real life tournaments:

1.c3 e5 2.c4

this is a sicilian and maybe the opponent isnt ready to play the sicilian with white because he prepared all the openings for black (and maybe he doesnt play 1.e4 with white)

1.c3 d5 2.c4

the old benoni isnt very played, but if you play it with black this is a nice line

I wouldnt recommend these to be the main weapons. But they can be useful online if you are studying an opening with black and also sometimes in otb tournaments to surpirse your opponent

The main advantage of this opening is that you can decide what transpotions to make, so you have a lot of possibilites

There is the Elshad - a whole book on it from 2019.

1.c3 followed by 2.Qa4