Yes, so I wouldn't play it as black!¬ 
I quite like Advance French for white. Very slightly bigger edge than in the ....Nf6 variation, although I like ....d5.
The c3 sicilian
I like the French so I wouldn't mind playing this, especially as if white avoids the transposition the positions seem similar to the French Tarrasch with 3...c5. However, it's probably reasonable that people who are playing the Sicilian stick to the Sicilian, as there's already a ton of Anti-Sicilian and Open Sicilian theory to contend with
Optimissed wrote:
Yes for those wishing to take up 2.c3 against the Sicilian you have to come up with something half decent against blacks 2...d5! difficult as it's practically equal never seen anything yet to convince me to take up 2.C3 myself?!!
That position must have arisen via 2. ...Nf6. I would play Re1 there. The position isn't easy for either side and I much prefer 2. ...d5 for black.
BusyNight wrote:
Ziggy_Zugzwang wrote:
I recently lost a against a c3 Sicilian OTB. I had decided to play the main black antidote.
im a little curious what is the main antidote? how did you end up in that position? was it 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5?
I'll give the full game. Not my finest achievement... It show how the e5 pawn can create a wedge. The white diagonal to the black king becomes exposed... I decide to accept a weakness to eliminate this, then lose h7 and then collapse. White players of the c3 Sicilian may feel smug, yet after checking the possibilities along the way, I'm confident of not getting crushed so quickly in this line in the near future::
(I'm sorry I've been struggling for ten minutes to load the game. No doubt the problem is because of "improvements".)
But yes, it was 2...Nf6
2...e6 is also pretty good, though it allows a transposition to the Advance French