<SIGH>
Why are you playing an opening you don't know how to play, or understand?
The Sicilian is the most theory intensive opening around.
The fact that you don't know what to do on move 3? Should tell you all you need to know.
But to be fair, and to answer your question...
3...cd4 Now its up to you to understand "why" you play that move.
Good Luck.
cxd4
d5
Play the French. It's more direct. the aim is to fight for the center.
Play the French. It's more direct. the aim is to fight for the center.
The aim of every opening is to fight for the center.
Play the French. It's more direct. the aim is to fight for the center.
The aim of every opening is to fight for the center.
well I sort of agree but the french is more direct in its fight for the center.
Around 2010, IM John Watson wrote, "... For players with very limited experience, ... the Sicilian Defence ... normally leaves you with little room to manoeuvre and is best left until your positional skills develop. ... I'm still not excited about my students playing the Sicilian Defence at [the stage where they have a moderate level of experience and some opening competence], because it almost always means playing with less space and development, and in some cases with exotic and not particularly instructive pawn-structures. ... if you're taking the Sicilian up at [say, 1700 Elo and above], you should put in a lot of serious study time, as well as commit to playing it for a few years. ..."
From time to time, we see a report from a self-described low-rated, satisfied, user of the Sicilian Defense, but it has to be suspected that, for such players, the usual outcome is to start encountering difficulties as one faces opponents with more experience. For someone around 1000, I think that the standard advice is to reply to 1 e4 with 1...e5. A book like First Steps 1 e4 e5 is intended to help.
https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7790.pdf
https://chesscafe.com/book-reviews/first-steps-1-e4-e5-by-john-emms/
If you really want to go for the Sicilian, maybe try Openings - The Sicilian Defense: Read-Understand-Play by Jerzy Konikowski and Uwe Bekemann. Here is a little bit of an explanation of the Sicilian:
"... Two-thirds of this book deals with 'Open Sicilian' positions, in which White plays 2 Nf3 followed by 3 d4. This is by far the most common way for White to meet the Sicilian. White opens more lines for his pieces and attempts to exploit the fact that he will be ahead in development.
Let's take a look at the possible opening moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 ... . White is up in development and can move his pieces more freely. Black, however, has a structural advantage of an extra central pawn, which gives him long-term chances of taking control of the centre. A typical imbalance has arisen. The onus is on White to exploit his lead in development in order to secure an early initiative. If White plays passively or his initiative runs out of steam, then typically it's Black, with the better pawn structure, who enjoys the long-term chances. Thus it's quite rare for a state of 'dull equality' to arise. Often in the Sicilian, if Black 'equalizes', he is already slightly better! This structural advantage is seen in most Open Sicilian lines: for example, the Dragon, the Najdorf, the Scheveningen and the Classical Variations. The major exception to this rule is the Sveshnikov Variation, in which Black accepts pawn weaknesses in return for activity. ..." - GM John Emms (2009) in Starting Out: The Sicilian, 2nd Edition
After the very, very common moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 (or ...e6 or ...Nc6) 3.d4, ...cxd4 is universally played. Seriously, try to find a half dozen, even one game at grandmaster level in which black didn't reply 3...cxd4
What does that tell you? What it tells me is that the exchange of a wing pawn (c5) for a central pawn (d4) is so central, so fundamental to black's opening plan that any other ideas, no matter how interesting, good or playable, just don't make it to the master players' radar screens.
To be fair after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 there is a legitimate alternative in 3...Nf6 which has certainly been played by GMs. It nearly always transposes after 4.Nc3 cxd4 but gives white the opportunity to play the harmless 4.dxc5 Nxe4 as well as avoiding some of the lines where White recaptures on d4 with the Q.
1. e4 c5 2. nf3 e6 3. d4