Learning Sicilian

What? This is definitely at least more than a month to prepare.

my uscf is about 1700. My FIDE based on one of my 2 tournaments in this year is 1665 and I didn't do that badly in the 2nd.

Wow.  I looked up your stats here on chess.com and your tactics are 2700+ and your lessons are 2500+.  That's terrific!!   You are more than ready for unleashing the Sicilian on your opponents!  Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.

it's worth a try it is so fun to play with

it's worth a try it is so fun to play with

thanks. spoiler alert: i started this thread before I am actually going to need it: I have another tournament on 6/21 - 6/24 and need to prepare my own openings, but I figured that I could gather the most suggestions to look at after it if I started it earlier. Oh and I have to go over probably about 150+ games in certain openings. but yes, i agree with you. i noticed that in the 2-day sections of 3-day tournaments and in the Sicilian there are generally more upsets, so if I can play up...

I decided to keep my normal openings against the lower rated or same rated players but use the Sicilian against much higher opponents, the point being that I don't want to land on the down side of an upset

6 weeks to "learn" the most theory intensive opening, and against people rated 400+ points higher?

Recipe for disaster.

The Sicilian is a tricky opening to learn because there are quite a few ways White could play against it, especially if you are going to learn the Najdorf. Many forcing lines that you may have to memorize (even if you play the sidelines there's still a lot of stuff you need to know). If you are interested in it, go ahead, but don't expect amazing results within the first few months (or even a longer period of time). Before you start getting into the specifics though, you should first look at master games in the Najdorf to get a feel for the positions. MVL is probably the best Najdorf player right now, although many others such as Gelfand are also up there. I'd say that if you want to learn the Sicilian you should probably learn to play against the sidelines first, because most people around your level are likely going to play anti-Sicilians. Good luck and have fun studying the Najdorf!

thanks @Blank112233

@IMBacon , I asked what to play and whose games I could look at, not your opinion on whether or not I would be ready to play it. Your posts contribute to this thread nothing at all.

@BobbyTalparov , thanks for telling me about the London, but you said 1600 to 2100. My uscf is 1700 so I am planning on playing Sicilian only against 2100+s. Against anyone lower I would play my old opening. Against d4 and the London, I am already prepared.

@DeirdreSkye my old opening was passive and so I would lose against 2100+s for sure. At least I would have some chance in the Sicilian against them.

"Obviously, there is no guarantee this year will be the same, but last year virtually everyone above 2100 was playing various queen pawn games (there were a lot of QGD and Catalans)." 

That's interesting Bobby.  What do you think of these possible inferences:

1)  Some players are afraid of the Sicilian, so they gravitate towards 1. d4

2)  d4 is fashionable.  Not really sure why chess players care about fashion, but is that a possibility?