I WANT TO DEMOLISH THE SICILIAN OPENING AS WHITE! GIVE SUGGESTIONS!

Hello again, fellow Chess.com players. I'm frequently playing against the Sicilian in my games, and it's getting very annoying to play against. I play the Closed Sicilian: Grand Prix Attack, and I think it's time I move on with another Sicilian Counter. So please, share some ideas of what I could use to Destroy the Sicilian!!! (Extreme Gambits are always a great recommendation, just try to make them appropriate for a 1700 ELO player)

Yours truly, 

Talented-Tal

I haven’t played e4 openings seriously in a while but try the Alapin variation

Alapin is goated .

Why?

Ye I play d4

open sicilian

An 1800+ rated player should be well aware of the main Anti-Sicilians.

My favourite is the Morra Gambit.

Black has to be very careful doing that. The dragon may lose his head.

I've played the sicilian for quite a while as black, so I think I'm in a good position to give you advice on this.

Firstly... I think you should understand that, aside from the sharp theoretical lines, black can play the sicilian very intuitively. It's not algorithmic in the way that lines like e4/e5 are... there are recurring pawn structures like the dragon, taimanov, schveneningen, maroczy bind... and numerous others. So when you play an anti-sicilian with the hopes of throwing off blacks algorithm often I find this is really not effective at all. The exception might be if it's a sharp or really novel anti-sicilian. Here are a few anti-sicilians that I do like for white -

The Westerenin - these b3 structures do play out quite differently, black isn't used to seeing this. The Snyder is also interesting (2. b3) but b3 gets even better against e6, which is why I like this line in particular -

The Portsmouth gambit - I like this line because it leads to a sharp, chaotic and interesting game. White is also scoring well in practice. And it's useful to have an anti-sicilian in your pocket against 2... Nc6, since Nc6 is so transpositional. Of course you could also play the Rossolimo -

The Rossolimo - probably the best anti-sicilian, it's objectively better than the main line, but maybe more importantly it allows you to control the game after 2... Nc6, which is important due to the potential transpositions after Nc6 -

The anti-sveshnikov - it's not a full blown anti-sicilian, but it does avoid the sveshnikov and can play novelties against the french sicilian transpositions. Can work in a repertoire depending on the other lines you're playing. It's a solid alternative -

Those are the ones I would play if I was white. Against 2... d6 I don't think you should play an anti-sicilian. Because the way to dominate these lines is to play theory. The Yugoslav is brutally punishing of the dragon if white plays it well. The Rauzer is also extremely difficult for black to play. And the Najdorf... because it is so commonly played white will get alot of practice against that line, white also has like 10 different options... so really I think it's white that controls the game here. The biggest advantage the sicilian player has is control, black chooses which major variation to enter into and it's a vast amount of theory. Black tosses that advantage away by playing the Najdorf, and in practice it's one of the lowest scoring sicilians for black below masters level.

Furthermore, anti-sicilians against 2... d6 are the weakest of all. The delayed alapin here is completely worthless, all black has to do is develop and white can't manage to push d4, black gets a kingside fiancetto in and the game is dead equal. If you try to play something like the Prins or the Chekhover black can actually bypass most of that via this line, which black is very happy to play -

So some combination of the main lines vs. d6 and the anti-sicilians I listed above vs. the others is what I recommend starting out. I do think white needs to limit the theory via mixing in some antisicilians, especially at first.

Most other anti-sicilians I just find too dry / not challenging. Maybe the only other exception is the closed sicilian, which can be interesting.

But for example, the alapin... that just leads to a dry, grindy game that feels equal. Again, you're not throwing off the sicilian players algorithm because that's not how black approaches the sicilian in the first place. The smith-morra... black has a very easy, prepackaged way of responding to that where he enjoys a 65%+ winrate over white. The people who like that line are usually bullet players. People also greatly overestimate how much initiative white gets out of the pawn sac - you used a move clearing c3... Your knight is still on the kingside, that's the main "momentum" you have and it's very fleeting. Clearing c3 is probably worse for you, it's usually black attacking along that file... it makes a little pocket for the bishop yes, but that takes 2 more moves to reach and your initiative is fleeting. And opening that file prevents you queenside castling, which is a loss of initiative. But most importantly black is now not under pressure to push d5. Not a great line.

bruh

Smith-Morra Gambit. Google Marc Esserman, and you will understand.

I have no idea what's happening.