Open Sicilian as White

I am having difficulties finding lines against the various Sicilian defense options that black has, so I decided to open up this forum as I need suggestions to which lines to play in the Open Sicilian.

Conditions for the opening variation:

1. It should be a bit rare.

2. It should contain a little bit venom (easy for opponent to go wrong).

3. Plans should be straight forward.

I'd check out the Levenfish against the Dragon, the Freak Attack against the Najdorf, and the 6. f3 line (I don't think it has a name) against the Classical. I don't play the Open against Sicilians other than 2...d6 so I'm no help there.

Thank you will check out those options.

It's possible to play a g3 system (with short castle) in almost all Open Sicilians. Books have been written about it; it's not critical theoretically but fills the three points requested above.

Other possibilities : Prins' 5. f3 against 2... d6; Dragon with Bc4, 0-0 and h3; 6. h3 against the Najdorf.

@1

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d3

- Against the Sicilian Dragon

You want to play the Yugoslav Attack.

It doesn’t match your criteria as being rare because it is main line.

The problem is any other line you play helps the Sicilian Dragon have great game.

In Fact, I recommend to Intermediate players to play the Sicilian Dragon.

It is because most other intermediate players such as yourself don’t like playing mainline.

Sicilian Dragon does well against everything else.

The main venomous/challenging line is Yugoslav Attack.

A lot of Sicilian Dragon players stop playing Dragon in advance levels of chess because that is only line people will use against them and it is actually tough to win against as Black.

What against others? Yugoslav is great pretty straightforward plan for white. I have played exclusively that uptil now.

@6

"The main venomous/challenging line is Yugoslav Attack."
++ Yugoslav Attack is 20+ moves of theory. Anand lost it twice to Kasparov.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018626https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018628

- If Black plays 5…g6 Sicilian Dragon:

I use to play 6. Be3 which is Yugoslav Attack

- If Black plays 5…Nc6 Classical Sicilian:

I use to play 6. Bc4 which is Fischer-Sozin Attack

- If Black plays 6…a6 Nadjorf Sicilian:

I have nothing!

In fact, I quit playing the Open Sicilian and switched to Closed Sicilian because I couldn’t find a line which I thought could stand up to Nadjorf.

I tried many lines in order to combat Nadjorf.

I tried old main line 6. Bg5, but I ruled it out because of Poison Pawn Variation ( which I play Nadjorf from Black side so thought of facing poison pawn Variation with white pieces seems like suicide.)

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I tried new main line which can be 6.Be3 or 6.f3

6.Be3 allows Ng5 which is Anti-English line which I love to play with Black pieces

6.f3 is another move order trying to get into English with out facing Anti-English line, but after e5 I think Black attack is happening faster vs. white Attack which again makes me hate trying to play with white side.

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I tried playing 6. Be2, but it felt pretty lame.

It is solid positional line, but it feels very slow and I didn’t enjoy it as much.

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‘I tried playing 6.Bc4, but it has some deep theory because their are different pawn sacrifice lines in it.
It also has piece sacrifice lines in it on like e6 square which is deadly, but also very complicated to figure out tactically and my tactical strength wasn’t that great at time.

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I tried playing 6.g3 which is probably my favorite line out of them all, but at the time when I was using it. It was considered a novelty and their wasn’t a lot of books or information about the line to help me improve with it.

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In the end, I gave up on Open Sicilian in favor of Closed Sicilian due to having more information available at the time to learn it.

Closed Sicilian was also renowned line played by former World Chess Champion (Boris Spassky) I was even able to review his games to learn and see how he played it.

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‘As for the last line in way above diagram, The move 5…e6 is Scheveningen position which I never studied because I never played anyone who played it and before I had a chance to find a line against it. I decided to give up on Open Sicilian.

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I wish I could be more helpful, but it is all the information I have on Open Sicilian.

Thank you for all the insights, Najdorf seems to be absolute!

For the 2...d6 lines you may consider the rather rare 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3!? (the simple plan is to get a bind with c2-c4 either directly, or after 0-0), when after the typical 5...e5 Black has some problems to solve after 6.Nf3!

This has been played by several top players, mainly at fast time controls.

Thanks for suggestion, cool idea but maroczy bind structures not my cup of tea.

You could play the Prins against the 2...d6 lines. There is a whole book on it by Sergey Kasparov (NOT Garry) called Steamrolling the Sicilian.

It is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 (instead of 5.Nc3) with USUALLY a subsequent c4. There is a line or two where c4 is dubious, like 5...e5 6.Nb3 a5, but it is rare.

It drives Najdorf and Dragon players nuts because they play the d6-lines to avoid maroczy Bind structures, figuring ...Nf6 will trigger Nc3 before White gets in c4.

sounds like the early g3 open sicilians are right up your alley. White retains usually a small but steady advantage and its easy to end up in positions where black has ran out of counterplay

noted

From an OTB game of mine back in the 1980s.

6. Bg5.

Out of fashion, but perfectly playable.

Murder on the h-file - Chess Forums - Chess.com

Insane game

Did you check the 6. Bg5 "Murder on the h-file" game?

Qb6 is the move for Black.

If Black doesn’t play it, Than you are correct.

6.Bg5 seems super amazing vs. all the other lines.

Its hope chess to wish for your opponent to play weak moves that’s why I disregarded 6.Bg5 move.