Safe response to 1. ... c5

Dear All,

     I usually have a lot of tactical problems after my opponent responses 1. ... c5 to my 1. e4. What should my second move (and next moves) be if I would like to obtain as safest/calm/positional game as possible?

All the best,

Daimonion

There's the old c3 right away or after 2. Nf3 Nc6.
Lots of other moves are playable as well. 2. Nc3 etc. Not pretty but you have a game.

You could play it like a Botvinnik system in the English.  (In no particular order) e4 d3 c4 g3 Nc3 Ne2 Bg2 0-0 and you're flexible enough to go for f4, d4, or b4 depending on what black is doing.

You could play 2.Nc3 or a host of other anti Sicilians like 2.c3 or 3.Bb5

Improve your tactics rather than trying to avoid an important weakness.

Thanks! Scottrf, you're completely right - I'm trying to improve my tactics by intentionally playing 1. e4 (rather than 1. d4 which I prefer). Only in my most important games I'd like to be careful.

I have always found the Bb5 systems (Moscow and Rossolimo) to be the best ways of avoiding the open sicilians and getting a solid position whilst still pressing for an advantage with white.  Although I still don't have anything I really like playing against 1. e5 c5 2. Nf3 e6 though.  

In my opinion if you play an open sicilian as white you're almost inevitably going to end up in a line where your opponent is better prepared than you are.  As an amateur player it makes no sense to enter these minefields!  Leave that to the professionals who have the time and ability to memorise the thousands of moves that are necessary to know to play the open siclians with some degree of competence!

You don't need to memorize thousands of moves as white. It is rather black who often needs to find only moves, while white even if doesn not know the lines really well can start an attack with that activity. Don't overestimate the sicilian, it is much more dangerous for black than for white below the master level, although it gives the best winning chances as well.
 

That's true that many on the lines are risky for black.  I guess I've always worked on the theory that if my opponent plays something like a Najdorf that's the opening the he wants to be playing.  

Frankly black just has so many good highly analysed options against 1. e4 that it becomes impossible to prepare properly for them all unless you are a professional.  That's why I recently switched to playing stuff life 1. c4 or 1. g3 to try and avoid all the theory associated with 1. e4 and 1. d4.

There's no "safe" reply, you have to play well whatever happens, Scottrf is right.

I find the Alapin (2.c3) great; 50% of times it transposes into the French (advanced variation), so if you learn that you've got two openings for the price of one.

Not sure it's a good idea to try for that transposition though since black can get an "improved French defence" by getting the light sqaured bishop outside the pawn chain.

I love it when my opponent plays c5. I meet them with 2 c3 (Alapin). It often transposes into a King's Indian Attack structure--most Sicilian players I've run into do not appear familiar with the main lines of the c3 Sicilian. Either that or they want no part of it and transpose. I learned this system from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vaTT8jcDf4

Three sample games to be familiar with, and I'd recommend knowing the KIA structure along with it. This system takes all the sting out of the Sicilian! Dragon?? The thing's a pussy cat!

If you feel you must play something other than the Open Sicilian, then you should seriously think about playing 1. d4

Starting Out 1. e4 by McDonald has an easy to learn Open Sicilian repertoire based primarily on 6. Be2

    I've been told that a well-played sicilian at the very least equalizes for black and that it comes with some winning chances, so truth be told, there isn't exactly a "safe" reply to the sicilian (that my amateur self can think of). There ARE somewhat positional lines  but more often than not, if you're not fighting for a decent advantage, then you're at least allowing black to nearly equalize since white's advantage for the center pawn in the sicilian is rapid development (even in the Dragon: Yugoslav attack 9.0-0-0 variation, after 9...d5 10. Qe1 is a sort of "positional" line where white has a slight, nagging advantage that he's trying to push).

    I don't think you should care too much about slight opening advantages though. At our level, unless you make a decisive error in the opening, most games are decided by middlegame play anyway. I think scottrf put it best when he stated that you should fix your weaknesses instead of avoiding them.

@amartalon - I don't try for the advanced, I only play it if it fits (like I said, maybe 50% of the time). In your line I'd play 3.exd, and Black is a long way away from his desired Sicilian.

@The_Potato - if it was that easy, GMs wouldn't play the Alapin.

1. d4 handles the Sicilian quite nicely!

don't worry, play 2. f4

Pass the problems to blackside, its a strong and no very usual gameplay, your attack against his kingside is more dangerous than his attack against your queenside. Normaly Blacks tryes to carry the game to the center with 2. ..., d5.

So you can break easily "his book".

2. f4 gives white nothing. After 1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. ed5 Nf6 4. Bb5+ Nbd7! 5. c4 a6 6. Bd7 Bd7 white has absolutely nothing. For example, 7. d4 cd4! ! 8. Qd4 e6 9. de6 Be6 gives black fantastic compensation for his pawn. (no idea if that's the main line, I just made it up)

Try some Grand Prix with Nc3, Bc4, d3, f4, Nf3, 0-0, and at some point perhaps a3 or a4 to give your bishop some air and Qe1-g3 or h4.

In tournament games where it counts you should try avoiding weaknesses while shoring them up during practice. 

Clunney, agreed.  The Tal Gambit equalizes immediately and black completely owns the d4 square for his operations. 

2.Nf3 and see how black responds.  If 2...d6 then you have 3.Bb5+,Bd7 4.Bxd7+,Qxd7 the recapture with the queen is best since it allows the knight to go to its best square.  Wait, you're concerned with white, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Otherwise, d3 + g3 and Bg2 look good if you want to avoid reams of theory. I'm not too hip on mainline theory myself and prefer natural moves usually going for a Paulsen and might transpose into a Najdorf or Schveningen. 

However, as a Sicilian player myself the thing that scares us (or at least me) the most are aggressive yet sound open Sicilian mainlines, though we typically won't overpress if we see something seemingly bad like Kh1 in certain variations (getting the king off g1 for pawn storms can be critical the English Attack is noted for this maneouver)

Thank you for all your suggestions! And, to TheGreatOogieBoogie, it is exactly what I'm trying to do:

- play open games while practicing to train my tactical skills

- play closed games while participating in a tournament