Opening Study - Classical Sicilian English attack - advice?

I generally play the English attack against the Najdorf, Scheviningen, and Classical sicilians. But there have been a couple troubling variations in the Classical I've been looking at.

This is the starting position.

There are many moves for black, the most respectable being ...Qb6, ...e6, or ...e5. The e5 lines seem to cause me the most trouble.

The thing is, in the ...e6 lines, White seems to use typical English Attack ideas, playing Be3, Qd2, 0-0-0, g4, etc, with a kingside attack. In the ...Qb6 lines, A similar plan can be used eventually, after something like Nb3, Qe2, Be3, 0-0-0, g4, etc.

But in the ...e5 lines, it seems common that white can't really go for this, or if he does, there are a couple annoyances to deal with. One of my big questions is: When is Nd5 a good idea, and when is it not?

Any thoughts? The big questions for me are...

What makes the Classical Sicilian different from the Najdorf Sicilian in the way white conducts the English attack? Does it all simply revolve around a7-a5 in one tempo, or is there more?

And when can white go for the kingside attack, and when should he settle for the Nd5 idea and a more positional game? Seemingly inconsequential changes in move order appear to change the verdict, both with my engine, and in the games database of master games, and I really don't understand why.

Thanks!

You simply cannot play the English attack against anything. Under the classical move order, it just lacks real punch, and Black is extremely comfortable after 6.f3?! e5 7.Nb3 Be7. Black needn't even go for the ...Be6 ideas, as the straightforward 8.Be3 0-0 followed by an eventual ...a5 is working just great, white should be very careful to avoid falling into a passive position.

The reason is more than obvious: Black has substituted the nondeveloping 5...a6 with a sane, highly useful developing move, and can easily cross white's plan.

The English Attack is a perfectly viable option in 2 variations of the Sicilian, and "OK", but "Not Great" in a third.

It works well against the Najdorf and Scheveningen, and is "OK" against the Taimanov.

Otherwise, the English Attack is Useless!

Now, of course, people will say the same moves can be played against the Dragon.  While that same setup may be true, it's not referred to as the English Attack in that case, it's the Yugoslav Attack, and there are differences in how the play follows beyond the opening, in the mid-teens and 20s.

Thanks.

Pfren, but how exactly does ...Nc6 stop the English attack? I understand it's a sane developing move, but if the Knight was simply placed back on b8, I can't tell the difference as to how effective the english attack would be. Is it more of a long-term thing?

 If it was something like a rook coming to c8 a tempo faster, that would make sense, but the relationship seems indirect

you can play the english attack against everything except the kan in most instances, the sveshnikov and some rare version of the paulsen with ...e6 and delayed Nc6.  on 6.be3 of the english attack najdorf there is ng4, and white has a  few good weapons there, although if white insists on an english attack white can retreat to c1 and play f3 next although Black has the additional option of Qb6.  qb6 in sicilians is tricky to meet, most simply but not to adv. by nb3 but usually white has some good way to sac b2.  

IM rensch had a course on the english attack structure in which of course there are many principles and lines and it was an excellent course

...  there are many books on this english attack structure too and many practitioners on all levels on both sides (korneev, anand, kasparov, etc).

In the Rauzer you can play 6.Bg5 followed by Qd2 0-0-0 followed by f3 and in some instances Be3 to attain an English attack structure.  Additionally 9.Nb3 was played in the WC between the Ks and White can expand there with f3 g4 etc, I believe some famous attacker I think Tal had a nice game in that line.

Educative post...i thought i could play english attack almost against all sicilian variations.Now i know better.

As the last poster said, you enter the Richter-Rauzer but play f3  not f4 to usually [black can play the Bd7, Rc8, Qa5 ... line and avoid e6 and the English] get an English attack setup. The bishop gets in the way a bit on g5, delaying the attack a move or so, but that setup has won a lot of games before black figured out how to play against it.  In OTB games I've mostly had people play 6. f3 and 6. Be3 and black is fine after both of these. My opinion is that Rauzer w. f4 is best vs classical but it takes study to play as there are lots of options [and chances to go wrong] for both sides.   -Bill