How do I start learning the Sicilian?

As pfren says, the chance of playing the Sicilian "correctly" at your level... or at mine... are pretty small. But you and I tend to play against opponents of our own relative strength, not against people who can respond to the Sicilian "correctly".

You pointed out that White tends to gain a big advantage in development in this line. That's very true. But the advantage of better development is increasingly important the more open the position is. If you play (as Black) to keep the position only semi-open (by hiding behind your restricted center pawns at d6 and e6), you have an excellent chance of surviving long enough to complete your own development, and neutralize White's advantage.

This is important because with 3. d4 cxd 4. Nxd4, White gains a short-term advantage in development in return for conceding Black a LONG-TERM advantage of two center Pawns vs one. If Black can hang on through the opening and catch up in development, White might be left with NOTHING to show for his trade of the d-Pawn for the c-Pawn.

@Blueemu : Did you check the last game you posted with the engine? I am just asking because this mate and the queen sacrifice were awesome and I want to know if it was correct. Really nice game! Congratulation :)

The Kan is great.  You don't need any other variation of Sicilian.  Polugaevsky played it well.

I don't own an engine of any sort.

Not sure whether the Queen sacrifice was sound. It isn't very clear-cut and I was playing by the seat of my pants as much as by calculation. It's hard to see how Black can wiggle out of that White Rook => Black Knight => Black Queen pin on the second rank, though. To be honest, as soon as I spotted that Be6! shot I immediately played the Queen sacrifice, without further calculation. It was a move that I simply HAD to make, win or lose.

At the risk of sounding ignorant (which I am), what are the "classical" openings; is that like the Ruy, the Italian, etc? I generally study tactics rather than openings anyway b.c I think you should master them before anything else.

By terms of "classical", we define open games (1.e4 e5), as well as closed games where Black applies a "center-is mine" strategy- 1.d4 d5, or 1.Nf3 d5, or 1.c4 e6 and eventualy ...d5, and such.

Thank you! 

sicilian starts e4 c5. 

wow...

intending to attack the center from that side of the board, right?

Best scoring reply to e4 according to databases.. Which in my intermediate level doesn´t mean much. I have been playing almost exclusively
Sicilian against e4, And it has served me well so far..

It might be more useful for me to post a Sicilian (from an OTB tournament) that I played with the Black pieces...?

Would someone please help me out here.  In the game above, why doesn't black play 17 ... rxh1 ?  I must be really dense on this.  Thanks.

Easy answer, insidejob - he missed it. It's far and away the best move.

My approach to Sicilian was to train my dragon. In the beginnig I had huge problem with the lack of general understanding, but after ca 500 games I came some closer to understand it, and I take one tiny step all the time.

E5  after e4 I have answered less than 20 times the last 36 years. These days I use c5

.I might try e5 soon, maybe it helps me getting the dragon right.

I have slipped into other sicilian variation when I feel it right. I dont fianchetto getting the Morragambit, and I answer e6 to Bc4, Is that getting me into the Najdorf?

Thank you, bouncing_check, for restoring my sanity.  - I J

The Najdorf is the name of a specific variation, which starts: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6.

In contrast, the Scheveningen is both the name of a specific variation (as above but with 5. ... e6 instead of 5. ... a6) and also the generic name for a class of similar Sicilian positions which share certain characteristics (Pawns traded at d4, Black center Pawns on e6 and d6, Black K-Bishop inside the pawn chain at f8 or e7, White K-Bishop at f1 or e2, not at c4 or b3, etc).

As others have mentioned, you may want to start with other variations with your background.  The e6 Sicilians (Taimanov, Kan, Paulsen, etc.) are far more solid and quite a bit less dynamic than the d6 (Najdorf, Dragon, etc.) variations.  They share some pawn structure motifs with the French as well and may have less of a learning curve for you in the middle game, though they do differ quite a bit in their early ambitions.  The Kan is not "shaky" by any means, but I find the Taimanov favors those who have positional patience.  They still have more tactical and dynamic opportunities than a number of French positions, so they are good stepping stone.

Thank you very much blueemu. I lost horribly in an Otb-game versus Vegma playing the dragon quite blind when he played the Morra-gambit. My brain didnt work, neither did the autopilot, and I think I made five tempoweak mistakes in the first nine moves just building a classic dragonformation with fianchetto and also the a6. 

OTB  is psycically difficult, and nerves can make the brain very foggy.

I am these days playing more variable in move 3,4,5,6... trying to do what is fast and efficient related to my opponents moves. My goal is to get my dragon so bliztering fast that it can make fire on the queenside, and not only fight to defend, defend , defend.

Avoid main variations, such as the najdorf, which have a lot theory to study.

The kan is a nice solution and its advantage is that you can easily switch to any e6 variation, as the taimanov or the paulsen