what is the best defense for Sicilian


Depends alot on what your goals and style are. For below masters level in an online setting... my recommendations would be these -
- if you want tactical try the lowenthal
- if you want easy equality in most cases, and good pressure / activity, try the four knights
- if you want to avoid the anti-sicilians and play something very different try the nimzowitsch
- if you want to buckle down and out theorize the opponent / punish their theoretical mistakes try the accelerated dragon or classical
- if you like to play spontaneously and intuitively try the bastrikov
- if you want solid and offbeat try the taimanov w/ a6... often this can be transposed into the bastrikov or four knights, allowing you to bypass whites prepared mainline responses to those openings (Ndb5, Be3)