Queenside castles w/Black.

What are some good openings where Black aims at a Q-side castle against both d4 and e4?

Sicilian Defence ?

In the now very popular Ne4 lines in the Scandinavian Qa5 mainlines where black retakes with the g pawn.

Agreed with the NM tonydal - I often play the Nimzowitsch and 0-0-0 is my distinct preference as black.

@ kco

When does black castle queenside in the Sicilian?

-I always thought Black pretty much always castles kingside or leaves his king in the center, but then again I don't know too much about the (mainline) Sicilian except for the Accl Dragon, Dragon, and the English Attack of the Najdorf which I am currently studying...

unless the OP means 'aims for a Q-side attack' though...

But if the OP means Black castles queenside then a 2 good ones (meaning not crappy like Albins BadCountergambit) that come to the top of my head are some lines of the CK and Slav Proper (in both the g5 variation and, recently, in the f6 variation)...

I thought it was. It's not unheard of but it seems uncommon to me. I know in the kan sicilian when white plays g4 early on (before even black plays ...nf6) he often castles queenside, but I don't think it's a common plan for black in most cases.

May I ask why you asked this question? Are you that crazy about castling queenside? You do that when it's correct to and it's correct for white a lot more than black, as black tends to want to at least get castled at all and won't want to waste so much time going the other way where it's also exposed to a pawn storm, so you don't see it so much.

Well what I really mean is that I think it's rather rare in the sicilian from what I've seen, but I probably shouldn't be the judge because I'm no sicilian expert. I was just surprised to hear that castling queenside is not so uncommon.

I've seen plenty of situations in the Sicilian where black castles queenside and follows up with Kb8 and often Rc8. It is often pretty safe over there, especially if white has castled queenside as well. It seems to happen fairly often in the 6.Bg5 Najdorf and the Richter Rauzer if I recall correctly...