[Note: I do not want to play anti-sicilians, stop trying to convince me]

Hello, I'm very fond of 1. e4, and don't think at my level (OTB 1500-1600) its really worth it to learn 1. d4 from scratch.  I may consider doing so when I become a bit better, but openings are not my main priority.

That being said, i need to learn to play open sicilians (as white), because I am clueless.  I am constantly getting my butt kicked, as I know neither the continuations, or even the ideas behind the opening!  I could really use some help here .

I'm not asking you to tell me move 45 of the J-56 awesome attack without Kd4.  I'm looking for some fairly basic move orders (somewhere around 10 moves) and the ideas behind the opening.

Please no links to wikipedia/databases.  Please no COPYING wikipedia/databases.

I'm not highly booked up on lines of the Sicilian in general, so I'm going to talk about basic principles.

It is worth noting that such great GMs as Bent Larsen disdained the Open Sicilian, as they thought that exchanging off a centre pawn with 3. d4 was a positional error. That said, you want to know more about it, so here's what I can offer and I hope others will fill in some gaps and take this to the next level.

If you're playing an open Sicilian, then by default, after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 (Nc6 5. Nc3), which is your mainline, Black has a half-open c-file upon which he is going to try to build pressure and gain counterplay in the middlegame. White, on the other hand, has a half-open d-file to exert central control with. This is part of why castling Queenside is so common for white (the rook gets put on this file, where Black may also wind up with a backward pawn) and the open Sicilian leads to such sharp middlegames. From here, there are a number of viable move orders with different positional subtleties, but in most cases your ideas as White will boil down to launching a successful attack on the Kingside before Black does on the Queenside. Pawn storms are frequent.

Often white will advance his f-pawn f3 to reinforce e4 (and work against a d5 push by black) or to f4 for Kingside attacking chances and to exert control over e5. Either move is viable, particularly in the Scheveningen Variation (5. ... d6) the mainline has f4, the fairly popular English Attack f3). The f3 push also shows up in the Yugoslav Attack in the Dragon Variation (to prevent Ng4).

Minor pieces often seem to show up on b3, either the g1 Knight (Ng1-f3-d4-b3) or the light-squared Bishop (Bf1-c4-b3) [see: Sozin Attack in the Najdorf for the latter]. This seems to be dual purpose - to maintain pressure on key squares (f7, d5, e4) while also adding a Queenside defender to try to thwart Black's early counterplay.

I would just play a sideline in the Sicilian if you don't want to play the Open.  The Alapin or Grand Prix would be a good option.

Get Watson's Mastering the Chess Openings vol. 1. It will give you basic ideas and a few starting variations to play against most Sicilians, notably missing is the Sveshnikov. In fact it will help with other reponses to 1 e4 as well.

"I would just play a sideline in the Sicilian if you don't want to play the Open"

Did I imply I didn't?

Anyways, thanks absurd, that post was tons of help =).

I will show some of my lines!

i believe in the stage u r describing u better stick to untisicilian openings namely the C3 sicilian which is the most promising.....but if u want to play the open sicilian the best begginers book is not watson but starting out the sicilian by john emms

Well, you can start by playing many many games in the sicilian here on chess.com. You can look each move up in a database, and slowly start to memorize lines. Experiment until you find lines you like.

Yeah... I'm G/15ing it up (the shortest time I can play with serious thought).

Gotta practice >_>

Theroy only gets you only so far.

Don't go on the c3 sicilan the grand prix attack(and the closed?!) is better against strong opponent

Yea well the open is the BEST against strong opponents. The guy obviously wants to play the mainlines, why discourage him?

If you can play the best lines against your opponents favorite opening than why not? The point of the open sicilian is not that it is easy to play for white, but that it is the best try for an advantage.

2 Nf3 is the common response, from there, many lines are played. The ones I know best are 2d6 and 2 e6 

OK.  You don't want to play Anti-Sicilians.  I then would pick a setup that works against all types of Sicilians and go from there.  Something like the English Attack or the quiet Be2 lines.  Against the theoretical lines like the Sveshnikov, I would pick a sideline.

Thanks ericmittens, I really just want to learn the open sicilian for now.  Once I'm comfortable with 1 line (say a year down the road), THEN I will learn a second line and expand my repitoire =).

And my OTB opponents shall quiver in fear... mwhahaha.

Anyways, ReLee1865, I'm asking for advice for the WHITE side of the opening.  The open sicilian refers to the position after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3, not 1. e4 c5 (which is simply the sicilian).

I dislike d4 really =/

Mainstreets advice has gotten me and fritz sparring against eachother.  I kinda wish it would variate from the dragon najdorf automatically however >_> (NOT the only line I encounter).

Also good news - I've won my last 3 sicilians!  Probably because my opponents didn't play cxd4 immediately.  One "Sicilian" I faced looked like someone on crack thought it up (first 6 moves were pawn pushes)

I've studied the Sicilian since I was very young.  There is alot of theory to be learned in order to play the open lines not to mention the fact that you may very well be playing into your opponents "pet" sicilian line with he/she has studied ad naseum.

That being said, I don't believe any other sequence really tries to gain an advantage for white.  The open lines really try and force the issue but at the same time you dance on the edge of a knife in most lines, especially deep into theory, and one slip means disaster for either side.

Look into the Moscow Variation or the Rossolimo.  They are both rather calm and much easier to play and remember than the open lines.

1.e4 c5

2.Nf3 d6

3.Bb5+ is the Rossolimo 

while

2....Nc6

3.Bb5 is the Moscow.

Exchange the bishop, castle early and take black out of his ultra prepared lines and into more comfortable territory.

Peedee, you have the names backward.  The Moscow is the Bb5+ line, while the Rossolimo is the Bb5 line.

Considering I KNOW an accelerated dragon player OTB, I would say knowlodge of only Bb5 lines would be quite useless.

But honestly guys, could you stop debating?  I have gotten about 13 replies with no real advice on each lines (just the move that enters them, AKA the Bb5 moscow), vs 2 posts that actually go in depth with the moves/ideas behind said lines.

Linus, why god did you crowd the entire page with scholar mate lines?

You didn't help, you waltzed into a thread with an entirely irrelevant topic that took up TONS of space.  WHY?

Lol this is worth reading, especially at this hour of night lol. (no offense meant there)