Sicilian Opening

Sicilian is a great defense. Hanging pawns youtube videos are a good starting point. Kramnik's part 3 chessable course on 1. e4 is a very good discussion of the sicilians from someone with a deeper understanding. Sam Shankland's course on the classical sicilian is also good.

In general the sicilians I'd recommend are:

- classical sicilian - there's alot less theory here compared with the Najdorf, but it's still almost as objectively sound and played alot less frequently. There's only really 1 testing move which is the richter-rauzer, everything else is quite easy for black to deal with if you know the line. You also can reach it via 2... d6 which fares the best against any anti-sicilians. Very good option

- taimanov - I'd say this is the most solid french sicilian, the pawn structures are simpler than in other sicilians and you're often able to break open the center

- four knights - again minimal theory and I find even at 2000 elo people don't know how to play against this, usually you get to push d5 very quickly and you've already equalized

- hyperaccelerated dragon - I like this because you don't have to play the rossolimo / other anti-sicilians, and if the opponent doesn't play correctly you'll be able to push d5 in one move / have a great position

- accelerated dragon - people debate whether this is slightly more solid than the hyperaccelerated dragon, I think they're objectively equal to one another, but white can bring the hyperaccelerated dragon into an endgame quicker. Here you have to play a rossolimo though... which I'd rather avoid... In any case, the hyperaccelerated dragon often transposes here.

- nimzowitsch sicilian - this is very underestimated, people don't know the main line even at 2000 level and in most cases you will equalize easily. Like the hyperaccelerated dragon you bypass alot of anti-sicilians. The patterns here are also very similar to what you get in the Nf6 lines of the alapin. Infact I think the two openings transpose in some variations. So you can basically apply your knowledge of this opening to nullify the alapin... and back when I played this I was also transposing the smith morra into the alapin. I abandoned this opening because I didnt personally enjoy the types of positions, not because it wasn't winning, but people who like the alekhines defense should check this out since in many ways it's just a better alekhines.

In general it's good to learn the dragon structure even if it's not your main opening, because many of whites sidelines will give you time to reach a dragon setup without being counterattacked, and generally once you reach the setup all your pieces are active and you will have a good game. So this is a good way to respond to many sidelines. You can also transpose into the accelerated dragon from the reti / some other openings, so it's a useful variation to know

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sicilians I'd recommend not playing are:

- najdorf - though this is generally thought to be the most objectively sound sicilian that will probably never actually matter for you, and there are probably 10 testing moves white can make against it. Which means there is so much theory here you will never learn it all or remember it all. It's also the most common sicilian so if white is prepared against anything it will be this.

- dragon - the non-accelerated dragon just gets owned by the yugoslav attack, I think you should only play this by transposition after the yugoslav is no longer possible

- sveshnikov - I'm sure this works well at GM level but if you actually go on lichess and look at blacks winrates in these lines at club level black just gets slaughtered in this entire opening, I would not recommend it for club players

- Kan - it's okay but I think the marcozy-bind setup is problematic to deal with and I think the four knights / taimanov are just better options

@ibrust Thanks a lot for the explanation.I'll take my time to look into those : )

@1

You are rated 360.
Forget about openings.
You do not win or lose because of the opening, but because of tactical mistakes.
Just apply opening principles.
Lasker formulated 4 common sense principles:

1. Only play your d- and e-pawns.
2. Play knights first, only then bishops.
3. Do not play the same piece twice.
4. Do not pin opponent's king's knight with your queen's bishop before the opponent has castled O-O