what are good white openings that boad well against sicilian defense

What exactly are you asking and with what background/intentions/previous recommendations/etc?

You can see what I would play against the Sicilian in my signature (not including the ones I consider unimportant). I play them and believe in them for what they are.. The best lines against the Sicilian for me but there are many good lines in/against the Sicilian from which to pick, half of which I don't think I'll add to my reportoire this quarter of the century.

I play the Smith-Morra Gambit against the Sicilian - 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3. Like most gambits, it takes a little study to learn to play it well, but it catches a lot of players off guard. And especially against Sicilian players, it takes them out of their comfort zone - they expect to be the ones on the offensive when they play the Sicilian, and they end up defending the entire game.

--Fromper

Here's a fun position you could try against a "Sicilian dragon"...... it is called the Samisch Attack and has excellent winning chances (Generally). Here is one example game you can try of it. Enjoy!


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O d5 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Bh6 e6 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 13. g4 Bd7 14. h4 Qb6 15. h5 Rh8 16. e5 Ne8 17. hxg6 hxg6 18. Rxh8 Kxh8 19. Qh6+ Kg8 20. Be2 Ng7 21. Rh1 Kf8 22. Qh8+ Ke7 23. Qxg7 Qe3+ 24. Kb1 d4 25. Qf6+ Ke8 26. Rh8# 1-0

Well, not a whole lot of people play the Closed Sicilian (e4 c5 Nc3) nowadays, and there's also the Grand Prix Attack (e4 c5 f4).

I agree, the Smith-Morra is a sharp opening that MOST players with the black pieces are uncomfortable with!

the Open Sicilian usually gives white an advantage.

But everybody is afraid of it and advocates playing less common lines because they are "easier". If you're one of those people who thinks they're not "good enough" to play open siclians then play the Rossolimo, (which does not give white chances like playing 3.d4.)

I’m a Sicilian player and I find a lot of people try 1. e4, c5 2.Bc4 which I think is terrible - I just play 2…e6 and generally they go for 3. Nf3 or 3.d3 - then 3…d5 is coming and I reckon Black is better already, because it’s the start of a nice Queenside pawn storm - for example 4.exd5, exd5 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Bxd7+ Qxd7 7.Nc3, b5 - black just needs to castle kingside, and look forward to pushing those pawns

I played a nice mainline Najdorf, to a draw against an ECF:96 at the recent York Congress - should really have been a win because I was a pawn up, but he was a better end game player than me and managed to force a stalemate, I’ll put that up sometime

I don't think it's a matter of other lines being easier to play or being "good enough" to play the Open Sicilian. I think it's a matter of other lines being easier to learn.

When you play the Open Sicilian, you're intentionally walking into your opponent's pet opening line. There are a dozen variations that black could have prepared, and that's all they ever play in the Open Sicilian, so you know they'll know their variation like the back of their hand. The white player, on the other hand, has to be ready for all of them. At the amateur level, the objective strength of an opening isn't as important as who knows that variation better, and it's highly improbable that white will know the specific line being played better than black does in any Open Sicilian game.

Many of the "anti-Sicilian" lines are nearly as good objectively, and they reverse the situation when it comes to opening preparation. The black player has to be ready for any of them, while the white player just has to know his pet line, thus reducing white's opening study time.

And in the case of the Smith-Morra Gambit, I find that it's just fun to playing such an open, tactical line, whether I win or lose. And did I mention that last weekend I used it to score a draw against the highest rated opponent I've ever drawn in a slow USCF tourney game?

--Fromper

Well, sure, EVERY main line opening usually gives white an advantage.

But relatively speaking, the above statement is false. Black scores better with the sicilian - at least at a high level - than he does with any other popular opening.

At a lower level, in my opinion, the sicilian is a poor choice because of the emphasis it places on defensive technique. It really neglects both development and kingside space in favor of the strategic advantage of an extra central pawn - and amateur players are better at handling advantages like the former than the latter.

But ... the problem is that so much sicilian theory is mapped out. If you play it as white, you have to prepare for several very reasonably tries from black where he's likely to be better prepared. It's hard enough to prepare for the Dragon, but throw in the Najdorf, Scheveningen, etc ... and all of a sudden you feel the need to spend much more time on opening prep than is healthy.

I normally reject the idea of picking moves to avoid playing on territory more familiar to you than your opponent - but I make an exception when it comes to the open sicilian. My results improved dramatically when I switched to the Smith-Morra.

As someone who used to play the dragon, I experienced the other side of this, as well. I played the sicilian because I wanted to play the dragon. And I scored much better with the dragon than I did against the closed sicilian, which is theoretically not as good.

One recommendation is that if you're going to play the open sicilian, don't play the highly-theoretical lines. Play something that was dismissed 20 years ago for leading to nothing more than equality - because it's going to be a dynamic equality, where white's advantages (development and kingside space, often the weakness of d5) are easier to exploit than black's. Furthermore, since you'll end up playing a lot of theory monkeys, you'll score well simply by taking them into even positions which they don't know how to play - they know one or two thematic ideas and a couple of traps.

The truth is that following GM fashion - which includes the open sicilian - makes very little sense for most class-level players.