C3

1. c3 is not bad, but its not good.

It's like having a change-up in your pitching arsenal.

I shall never play 1. c3.

I actually just switched over to playing 1.c4 almost exclusively (for a while). You can continue a solid setup with Nc3, e3, Nge2, g3, Bg2, 0-0. Maybe I should try c3 in an offhand game and try to make it work.

Actually if you played 1.c3 e5 (seemingly best) 2.d4 exd4 3.cxd4 you interestingly have a Caro-Kan exchange reversed, an interesting concept!

You never know... you might throw an opponent off-balance by playing an obscure opening. I myself haven't tried 1.c3 or 1.c4, but I plan on it!

The easiest way to learn an opening imo is to just go through the games of a strong master playing that opening, rapid-fire. For example, if you want to learn 1.c4 (the English) go to Bent Larsen's chessgames.com profile, click on the English link under the white pieces.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=11227

I play 3.c3...