How do you play against Sicilian Defense?

personally i feel that there is a lot of fuss about nothing regarding the sicilian defence. Just play grand prix attack or sensible normal developing moves.

If your opponent plays 1...c5 then you are in for a steel cage death match type of game from the very start.  If that is not the type of game you want, then don't play 1 e4.

But White has very good chances against the Sicilian.  If you like to go for all out attacks, look at some games where Tal or Keres or Spassky destroys Black; if you are a positional player look at how Karpov used to crush the Sicilian.

If you like to start more slowly then the Alapin is a great choice.

The Smith Morra is great fun but I think if Black knows what s/he is doing, your chances will not be as good as the main lines.

The other system you might want to check out is the one where White plays an early Bb5.  Having played both sides I would say that it is easier to find a plan for White than for Black in those kinds of positions.

I agree with Scarbiac. The 2. c3 line has plenty of winning chances for White. My OTB rating is similar and my Correspondence ratings are around 2150 and I use this in most correspondence games now and it works. It is now a "crushing" opening but White gets some nice positions. I will try and find a game or two and show them if you wish

I'd recommend playing the open sicilian. It's as much fun to play as white as it is as black. A book I found helpful in giving some basic lines against the various open sicilians is  "Starting out: 1. e4" by Neil McDonald. If you have a very high rating and play against really "booked up" opponents then you will want to look elsewhere. However, for alot of chess players it will provide a good starting place/foundation. You can get safely though the opening and play your own chess.

no no no

If I come up against 1...c5, I pretty much always go for 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3. The usual continuation is the Najdorf 5...a6, to which I play the flexible 6. Be3. If 6...Nc6, then 7. f3 (taking away the g4 square for black's knight), followed by Qd2, 0-0-0 and at some point Kb1 (to get it off the c-file).

Black's plan usually involves pushing the b-pawn, getting a rook and queen on the c-file and attacking that way, while white can push g4 and h4, then g5, and so on.

A danish goes well with coffee compared to some other pastries.  In chess it's another story where it hardly goes well with anything.

If u like gambits try the delayed wing gambit.

e4 c5

nf3...?

b4! 

u guys sure know a lot. i get lost with all those names & moves. perhaps i should study them and learn.. all i have been doing is muddling through. relying on native intellect to pull me through. and it shows.. some of my games really sucks. the good thing is i learn from you guys whenever i lost a game i should have won.

i think the best way to get balance is najdorf...

playable is also the paulsen-variant...

highly interesting is the sweschnikow-variant...

I imagine that if I ever moved to 1.e4, then I would play 2.c3 against the Sicilian. I believe that white often gets into an isolated queen pawn (right?), and this is exactly the type of position that I play well. Also, it's completely opposite to what Sicilian players are looking for out of the opening.

So maybe they'll choose instead to play 2. ... Nf6 instead of 2. ... d5. All told though, it's where I would start.

Even though the esteemed trainer Mark Dvoretsky recommended personally to me the closed Sicilian.

The good thing about the open Sicilian systems for White is that a lot of the lines and themes tend to be similar in most variations. So even if you find yourself playing against the Scheveningen having never seen it before, you should still have a good idea of what options are at your disposal. Especially if you play f3, and are used to coping with a b5-b4 pawn push from Black.

with corsican gambit?

I have a book that talks about the same problems you are talking about. It was a GM who kept on losing because he did not know the latest wrinkle in opening theory. He suggest to not play 1. e4. instead play

1. Nf3 ....2. g3 ..... 3. Bg2.... 4 0-0.... 5. and so on like the diagrams below show. basically you can make these moves no matter what black does.

edit: I am testing this opening out in live games and I am performing better right away.

Following your moves and the most popular moves for black in the "book", white wins 25.4% of the time as opposed to 39.4% for black. Just saying, I'm sure in tournaments these percentages don't always match up.

 GENERALLY, The key for the Sicilian is:  Don't defend,keep on the attack, ( for both white and black).  The player that "blinks" first, and starts to make soft and defensive moves, usually end up on the short end.  White's initial initiative and lead in development most of the time is an illusion ( if black knows how to play), while black's initial lagging behind in mobilizing its forces is also an illusion.  The player's has to KEEP UP the pressure, material chess takes a backseat, because like I said, if they start worrying about materiality, they will defend and react, which willalso be an advantage for the opposition.....Truly Sicilian= You kill one of my own, I will kill more of you= Gangster chess, I am telling you....

Avoid Open Sicilian with 2.Nc3

Oh, I'd love to play people who are demoralized by the mere idea that White could live with a draw. And just because he went into an IQP position. Is it really that easy to get a psychological advantage? :-)

David Howell ( a 2600+ GM) crushed Bitalzadeh ( a mere 2400 player) in 18 moves in the Wikj tournament with the 2. c3 line. It was in the 2...Nf6 line so no isolani variation. Considering I play the Panov as White the isolated pawn does not bother me at all,

I don't agree that "white doesn't consider a drawn game a bad result". When I play an IQP position (e.g. in the Panov) I am trying to win. These are difficult positions to defend from the black side. I realize that a recurring theme is that the endgame is often better for black, and that shapes the middlegame strategies to some extent, but nevertheless IQP positions are "not fun" to defend.

This may be the crux of the advantage of the Alapin - that black just doesn't want to play a typical IQP position.

I somehow knew you'd chime in, once I stated my preference for the Alapin. :-)