Sicilian defense responses for white that loves theory

I know I don't score great on the Alapin. It's comfortable but not as immediately advantageous as my other openings. That and it isn't as fun to play as the rest of my opening repertoire. That's why I'm looking for other openings. What makes switching a waste of time?

Because learning theory isn’t going to get you magically ahead, if anything, you’ll get worse or stuck.

You mentioned you enjoy studying theory, and not concern about improvement; that’s ultimately your call.

The club I play at, they are Alapin/Smith Morra players so I get it.

Black is always happy to go into an open Sicilian fyi.

if you REALLY know your theory, black gets in a lot of trouble in much of the smith morra gambit, BUT it's a mind numbing transpositional maze with kan, paulsen, & pin etc. formations and move orders get tricky. it USED TO BE super easy to crush black with the smith morra 10 years ago, but black has been booking up

I get annoyed that I never get to those cool lines where white pins a piece to e7 with a pawn on d6 because I don't know that much theory, but my score in accepted is STILL 51:45 in 174 games. that's WITHOUT booking up

Open sicilian is still better

Sveshnikov Variation: It's a complex and rich opening with many tactical and strategic nuances. Deep knowledge of this line can give White an edge.

playd this line before and its amazing

if you aren't 110% positionally clueless like me maybe. smith morra is the ONLY line I've ever done well against the sicilian with and have worked back up to a winning record against sicilians again with it after many losses early.

Hi! I think the Alapin Variation is fine-I play it too - but defenitively 2. Nf3 followed by 3. d4 is the way to go. Before studying it in depth, it would be best to level up other aspects of your play.

Good luck!

That looks like it requires black to play a lot of main line moves. How often do you actually get to the Sveshnikov and what's are games like when black deviates?

If you like studying theory, you can still play main lines even against well prepared opponents. Just pick a sub-variation (that you can steer the line into) that is very sharp and critical and that after 25 moves turns into a draw. (Sometimes these are like sac sac sac, perpetual check on move 25. No one at my level ever makes it to move 25.) Often white players avoid these so often even booked up Sicilian players dont have as much experience with the black side of them as you will [after some time with it of course].

Grand Prix is a good choice. Smith-Morra is super common in blitz games so most Sicilian players will have seen it a lot.

just my opinion for ideas to think about-Bill

I will reccomend you the kramnik sicillian agaisnt e6 and the prince against d6