Sicilian defence - which are the best lines for black?

Hello everybody!

According to the statistics, black has the best chance for a win with the sicilian defence against e4. But, the sicilian defence has a lot of variations, the mainlines, and the anti-sicilian openings. So my question is, which are the best lines for black? The Dragon? The Najdorf? Or something more positional? So which lines are that, why the sicilian is so good?

Well all different Sicilian lines have their advantages. The sicilian is the best chance against 1.e4 because of it's unbalanced nature.

Probably, i really don't like to play 2...d6, but rather Knight to c3. it usually leads to open sicilian or the rosolimo, which i like better as black then dragon or najdorf (i think najdorf is really a waste of time)

From personal experience, the Sicilian Sveshnikov has been the most fun to play. And quite powerful when the opponent doesn't know the mainlines (which happens quite often because it is a decently obscure opening) 

http://www.chess.com/article/view/sicilian-sveshnikov3

Here's a nice article (which I haven't read) on the Sveshnikov if you become interested in it XD 

There ain't no best lines known for Black. If there were such, all serious players would exclusively play them as Black, which is not the case. The question is which lines work best for you, and that depends on your features as a chess player.

I think the big three are the Taimanov, Najdorf and Sveshnikov.

But at your level that's utterly irrelevant -- those are definitely not the best lines for you.

@bobmacambob - What about 10)...Bg7 in place of f5? Have you tried that, and, if so, how did it work out for you? I was playing 10)...Bg7 for a while but wondered if 10)...f5, which I think is an older line, was better and what the differences in the resulting positions were

Sometimes found myself in a Scheveningen (sp?) and didn't mind playing from that position; seemed fairly solid and flexible

I know the ...f5 break is the key feature of the Sveshnikov and Bg7 can make that difficult to achieve (at least it did with me:)

I actually started off playing 10)...Bg7. Although the results for me have been pretty much the same, I did find that 10)...Bg7 had a somewhat safer feel to me. 

11)...Ne7 to try and get rid of the knight is the usual continuation. 

For me the best part of the Sicilian is that it can be used as way of transposing to hedgehog formation with e6, d6, a6, b6, Bb7, Rc8 etc

It's actually a legitimate method of dealing with the Sicilian.

 Apparently you don't know what you are talking about...Yes, there is transposing to hedgehog formation. Have a look at Ulf Andersson's games with black.

People, please don't take this wrongly, but you probably suck, like me, at maintaining the advantage in my games. Therefore, you must go with the next primary option, in which you are trying to reach a position you find comfortable. 

What is the point of memorizing theory, or studying the systems, if you lack of understanding, or experience discomfort?

The OP is well off listening to everyone's recommendations, as everyone has their opinions on what the best sicilian is, or what the best defenses are, but I totally disagree with the common thought that a certain variation is best. No, they are just different in their own ways. Simply put, you should pick one of the variations recommendation in the thread's comments, but I would ignore the reasons of picking such behind it, as most of them are based off favoritism.

Just pick what you are comfortable with. 

What's your point? I think you're spamming if anything lol.

Btw, i found something amusing in that game.

The point is that you can actually use the Sicilian to transpose to a hedgehog formation. 

the sonic the hedgehog formation of course.

I've played the sicilian defence for years and like most pitifuly weak players did so because it sounded cool and Fischer played it.  One advantage of playing the the sicilian is when you play 1...c5 you get the sicilian every time.  Maybe not your pet line but a pawn structure and piece placement that is going to be playable if you practice enough.  This is much the same for other none symetrical openings.  You simply avoid all the e4 e5 openings.  I personally haven't gotten around to worry about my replies as black to the Spanish, Italian, Kings Gambit, Scotch etc...This may work for you, or it may not.  For me it does.