well, Boris Spassky used it as well as Vassily Smyslov. here is a sample game but its an old one
Is the Closed Sicilian For Real?
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"In the 1990s the Closed Sicilian considerably lost its popularity for several reasons. First of all, its previous adherents, such as Smyslov, Hort, and especially Spassky, ceased to develop it, and other players failed to impress with it. Secondly, Black has found clear ways to parry White's active intentions." - GM Dorian Rogozenko (2003)
"The Closed Sicilian is not an especially good opening, which is pretty much the case for most openings that almost no top players play on a regular basis TODAY. What people did 50 years ago is irrelevant. That's not to say that someone like Short, or Adams won't trot it out for a single game here and there, but almost no one uses it as their exclusive answer to the Sicilian, which generally means it's not very good.
If top players aren't playing it, it's usually not good. Sometimes there will be exceptions, but they are rare and you'd need good evidence to back it up. Honestly if I know someone is playing the Closed Sicilian, I can pick one of probably 5-6 lines, each of which I can learn in probably 15 minutes, and expect to get a fully playable position without much difficulty." - IM Greg Shahade (2012)
"... I specialize at teaching players who aspire to be pretty strong...like at least 2200, and usually higher, so I'm less skilled at helping 1500-1600 players without any particular ambitions to become great at chess (however I suspect they should still be playing respected openings, but what do I know).
The first thing I do with any student who has serious ambitions in chess is try to wean them off of all the garbage openings that they play. I would not be an appropriate teacher for anyone who wants to play a bad opening because I would simply never teach it. I am unwilling to teach someone how to play something like the Grand Prix attack, the Closed Sicilian, the Schleimann Defense. These are all ok openings as a surprise from time to time, but if you play them 100% of the time, you are severely hampering your chess development.
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... If you really want to be great at chess someday, or want to be above 2000-2200, you will greatly help yourself by playing main lines and serious openings. If you don't have these ambitions, you can basically play whatever you want as long as you know something about it. ..." - IM Greg Shahade (2012)
"... There is no doubt in my mind that if you really want to test the Sicilian then you have to play the main lines of the Open Sicilian. The problem is that there are just so many of them: Najdorf, Sveshnikov, Dragon, Taimanov, Kan, Scheveningen, and many lesser lines. Each of these has its own huge body of theory and keeping up with developments in all of them is a substantial task. ... as you become older, with other demands on your time (family, job, etc.) ... it may make sense to reduce your theoretical overhead by adopting one of the 'lesser' lines against the Sicilian: 2 c3, or the Closed Sicilian, or lines with Bb5. At this time I was toying with 2 c3, mixing it up with Open Sicilians. ... later I started to play some lines with Bb5 ..." - GM John Nunn, commenting (2005) on a 1994 game where he chose 2 c3 (after 1 e5 c5)
"[1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 g3 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 d3 d6 6 Be3] is a really first-rate system for the club player with limited time to study the main open lines of the Sicilian Defense! ... I think that it is easier to play this attacking system than the main closed Sicilian systems with f2-f4 ~ Nf3 with a bulky kingside pawn-storm to try and co-ordinate." - Russell Potter (2010)
"[The Closed Sicilian] still has its supporters and the following game is evidence that 2600 players are still confident of giving it a go. ... I hope the reader ... will now play the Closed Sicilian with even more confidence." - IM Gary Lane (2011)
"The Closed System ... is a very solid system ... The drawbacks of the system are its slowness and also White's failure to fight for the square d4. In general, White opts out of the fight for an opening advantage and transfers the weight of the struggle to a complicated middlegame, in which exchanges are few and the board will usually contain many pieces and pawns, for some time. Several reliable methods for Black have been worked out in this line, ..." - GM Evgeney Sveshnikov (2014)
Okay so I am a very positional player but I am getting tired of playing d4 every time, it seems that White's pawn structure and plans are very similar for many of black's common defences. So occasionally I want to switch it up, but never at the cost of playing something objectively bad. Are there any good players who play the Closed Sicilian at the highest level? I know the computer says it is equal but would you say that in practical play White is rather comfortable? Is is good for must-draw games, or even must-win?