how to play against the sicilian

There's a bunch of anti Sicilian lines around or you can try the closed Sicilian. Most of them are fine have been played with frequently. But the mainline is main for a reason. Your best bet is to just go for the Open Sicilian as the positions that arise are more interesting and a valuable experience at your rating.

As someone with Sicilian ancestors I feel offended that you use antisicilian stuff :P

Gg

When/if they fianchetto the f8 Bishop, placing it on g7, one plan is to form a battery with the dark squared Bishop and Queen and then placing the Bishop on h6 if black castles to exchange the Bishops. Then black will have their King side weakened.

Also usually against these systems I try to get to a position where I castle long and attack with the pawns on the King side to get to black's king.

I'm fairly not new at chess and if you find out the surefire way to beat up the Sicilian, let me know. I've tried everything. Now I'm dealing with the Open Sicilian.

CLOSED SICLIAN????? DONT BE RECOMMENDING BEGINNERS TRASH LIKE THAT!!!

ill give you a basic rep of whites best responce: The Open Sicilian

in general, in the open d6 sicilians, play a Be2-Be3-0-0-Qd2 setup while at the same time trying to controll and prevent d5

in the open e6 sicilians, if you get the option to play c4 and have a bind on the d5 square, do it

and set up with the same setup regardless of the pawn being on c4 or not

in the classical you may need to study it a bit but your knight gets the d5 square and your light square controll is good

Most challenging for black is to play Open Sicilian. But that doesn't mean that you have to do it.
Even if you do, at your level, you don't need to go crazy with memorization from the get go. People will not be playing main lines for too many moves.

You have many anti Sicilian alternatives to choose from if you prefer a more slower maneuvering game.

For instance, I struggled with open Sicilian as white some time ago, but with the black pieces I have decent results when we enter open Sicilian. When I started playing Canal Attack/Rossolimo against 2. ...d6 and 2. ...Nc6 Sicilians, my results against Sicilian defense improved as white.

Still, that doesn't mean it is the best choice for you. There are other anti Sicilians as well, Alapin AKA 2. c3 Sicilian, Closed Sicilian (either 3. g3 or Grand Prix with 3.f4) are viable options. You can even try Smith Morra Gambit if you want to give up a pawn and play for the initiative, though that requires some knowledge as well in order to not just be worse. I probably wouldn't choose that, but some people have success with it.

Whatever you do, you don't need to memorize ton of stuff at the beginning. Pick a variation, learn the moves necessary to play it (maybe look one or 2 moves further) and then play the game.

After the game, check with the opening explorer and the engine if you made some big mistake in the opening, that gave your opponent a chance for a big advantage. If not, keep doing what you are doing, and if you did, correct yourself in order to play better next time.

"pry open the h-file, sac, sac ... mate!"

-Bobby Fischer

Quote from the book "My 60 Memorable Games", game 2, Fischer - Larsen, Sicilian Defense