ALAPIN SICILIAN

The Alapin Sicilian, also known as the Alapin variation or the “c3 Sicilian,” is
an opening white can employ against the Sicilian Defense. The opening
moves are 1. e4 c5 2. c3

The Alapin Sicilian has the advantage of allowing white to grab the center without
having to trade a central pawn for a flank pawn. For example, after 2…Nc6?! 3. d4!,
white gets to maintain a full pawn center after 3…cxd4 4. cxd4.
If black is unprepared to play against the Alapin Sicilian and doesn’t react
accordingly, white often implements this plan with great success!
The main downside of the Alapin is that the white knight is deprived of its natural
post on c3 – something that black can exploit with active play. Black’s two main
choices are 2…Nf6 and 2…d5.

In this line, black immediately attacks the e4 pawn.

It would be nice for white to defend the pawn with Nc3, but this of course is not
possible! And d2-d3 would give up on the idea of pushing d4, which is the whole
point of the Alapin Sicilian!
Instead after 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 d6 6. Nf3 Nc6:

We arrive at the following position.

At first this resembles one of the main lines of the Alekhine Defense, but upon
closer inspection the c-pawns are missing from the board here. This should
favor black, as the d5 knight is a lot more secure without having to worry
about c2-c4!
White has a space advantage for now, but black has a nicely centralized
knight and enough room to develop comfortably.
The game might proceed 7. Bc4 e6 (7…Nb6 is also popular) 8. 0-0 Be7 9.
Qe2 0-0 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 dxe5 12. dxe5 Qa5