Castling Long in the Sicilian

The long-or-short castling string brought to mind how I seem to struggle as White every time I castle long against the Sicilian. I know every game is unique but any general rules about going long against the Sicilian?

I guess it depends on a lot of things again, in particular your response to 1...c5. Typically I try to play the Grand Prix Attack, which can often lead to castling queen side and pawn storming blacks 0-0.

I've gone over Master games played with the Sicilian and many times White will go long but I can't seem to pick out the rationale for it. Once they have castled, they seem to hold their own while I tend to go down in flames.

Maybe I need a good book on the Sicilian but the ones purchased so far just seem to layout variations and do not get into reasoning for moves.

Can anyone recommend a book on the Sicilian that gets into rationale for moves/variations? What would also be great is the general strategy/reasoning behind choosing one of the major variations.

I'm also going to post this under the Chess Books forum so please forgive the duplication.

Also, depends on your style.  If you are playing Be2 variations or Closed Sicilian, then 0-0 might be fine.  If you are launching aggressive attacks on the Black kingside via pawn storm, such as in the Yugoslav Attack, then you should do 0-0-0.  

I know this thread is already 4 months old without activity, anyway, I'll write here a few words about long castling with white when playing vs the sicilian.

I believe the main reasoning to long castling is white's king safety.

Typically, white chooses to pawn storm the black's short castled king, with such maneuver black usually has the possibility for a counter-attack in the center ( remember "meet flank attack with counter-attack in the center"?).

In these positions the white king, if previously short castled, would be highly exposed. Knowing this, as you are probably imagining, the alternative is to long-castle.

This create middlegames with opposite castled positions. Black typically has the c-file open for attack, piece play attack and a sort of minority attack with a and b pawns against white's king. White on the other hand has a king side piece play attack with pawns in front, openning the way for piece infiltration, hoping to be faster than black's attack :)

Overall it creates a rich and an interesting game, that's why it is so popular. If you choose to short castle, as in many variations, you don't see the white's king side pawns push so much, unless you managed to create a closed position in the center, the reason is to keep king's safety.

You can check out Dan Heisman's Novice Nook article named When is a King Safe? which illustrates the king safety regarding its front pawn push. I think it will give you insight to understand white's long castling vs the Sicilian.   

I have noticed that when deciding to castle it is very similar as to calculate if you will have winning position when facing decision to trade everything down to endgame. If your pieces are faster, then you will stomp black. If not, you may still do it if you evaluate that even when black bring everything in- they cant gain advantage. And your defenders are faster to be useful in attack than for enemy. Even if understand concepts, this is not that easy. Defender is under pressure.

I like to castle long as white in the Sicilian because it makes the game exciting. If you or your opponent make a mistake, it alters the course of the game because you are both pushing your pawns to storm the king's defenses.