blown sicilian

Hello,

i've been playing the sicilian defence for several months and my play at it has started feeling flawed and structurally weak as i get to stronger players. I post an example which feels quite typical. I'd be very glad if smn could analyze it and give me some advice on this opening as well as some general advice - what to concentrate on to make my overall play better. Thank you so much, am looking forward to your comments!

Albertas

Instead of 7...d5, maybe its better to delay the push and play 7... Qc7 or 7...Be7 preparing to castle. All the exchanges left White better. Also once you played 7... d5, maybe its better to play 8... exd5. Although it leaves you with an isolated queen pawn the knight helps guard the kingside.

 I absolutely LOVE seeing this...I follow up with n-d5, exd5 and q-f3-a3.  If you do start playing the sveshnikov you must be prepared to meet this. 

4...a6?! ; mainline is 4...Nf6 5. Nc3 e5

8...exd5!? ; I think it would be better to accept the isolated but well fairly well supported pawn than to get the weak king position that you did. 

14...Bg7? ; as noted an inaccuracy as now white can keep your king in the center. Better would have been 14...Bd6

17...Be6? ; drops a pawn as you soon find out.

18...Rb8? ; I don't know maybe Qc7 Bb5+ Kd8. You are still lost, but not immediately at least. 

For whatever its worth, after you reach "out of database" positions, your opponent played extremely strongly.

I did some analysis with Glaurung 2.2 (up to 17 ply) , and concluded that you opponent played:

1st choice - 11

2nd choice - 2

4th choice - 1

So in conclusion, your opponent played at an extremely high level of play. I don't think you can really credit this loss to your opening. However I really think you should try more of the mainline sicilians before you really decide that it is flawed. 

7...  e5  .   I say this because it still allows a bishop out and it threatens a bigger piece so your opponent would likely want to move it it still allows a kingside attack as in 8 Nf3 Ng4  I picked Nf3 as you opponents move because it seemed most logical to me as it wouldn't really put me in range of attacks and wouldn't crowd the royals in and is a partial kingside defense/attack

I don't care for 7....d5.

In general if you play this type of Sicilian you are looking  for a safe solid set up to begin the game. Moves like Qc7 and or d6 look better instead of d5. Keep the center closed while that king is in the middle of the board.