Ideas for white in closed sicilian?

Question

What are the ideas for white in closed Sicilian? I am talking about 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6

Where do I place my pieces? At which side should I play?

What are the ideas for black and how can I prevent it.

Answer 1

Generally white tries to develop a kingside attack by pushing the kingside pawns. Blacks strategy is less fixed. I always try to get counterplay on the queenside and I usually do get some play, but the white attack always stays dangerous.

In this game by Magnus Carlsen you can see some typical ideas:

• The Qd2-Be3 setup.
• Bg2 and going for f4.
• 0-0! Contrary to the open sicilian, castling long would be suicide here.
• Bringing the Nc3 to the kingside and kicking out the d4 knight with c3.
• Nh3 is a bit unusual, but it speeds up f4. Completely normal would be Nf3-h4.

Carlsen-Wojtaczek:

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. g3 Nc6 4. Bg2 g6 5. d3 Bg7 6. Be3 e5
7. Nh3 Nge7 8. f4 Nd4 9. O-O O-O 10. Qd2 Bd7 11. Nd1 Qc8
12. Ndf2 Ndc6 13. c3 b5 14. fxe5 Nxe5 15. Bh6 N7c6 16. Bxg7
Kxg7 17. Nf4 Qd8 18. Rad1 Rc8 19. Qe2 h5 20. d4 cxd4 21. cxd4
Ng4 22. h3 Nxf2 23. Qxf2 Ne7 24. Rd3 b4 25. Rf3 Qe8 26. g4
hxg4 27. hxg4 Bb5 28. Re1 Qd8 29. g5 Qb6 30. Bh3 Rcd8 31. Be6
Be8 32. Nd5 Nxd5 33. Bxd5 1-0