books on the Sicilian

I'm looking online to buy a book on the Sicilian and there are too many to know what to do with. Can someone reccomend to me a comprehensive guide to the defense that's readable from a semi-beginner's standpoint? Something that includes Ways to Beat the Sicilian?

i'm tempted toward the Kasparov book- an annotated collection of his games playing the defense, something like 225 of them... any comments?

Have you considered a database instead of a book? You can download a free (read only after 30 days) version of Bookup 2000 Express, and then go to http://www.chessopeningspgn.com/chess/Openings.html and download free databases on whatever line of the Sicilian you want. Once put into Bookup, you have the opportunity to play through the many variations and see which suits you best... all at no cost. If you still want a book you will be much better informed on what variation you want after playing through some of the databases available.

I would instead tell you to buy a book on tactics...your time investment will pay off three times as much.

Don't get all caught up in the Sicilian...it will be a "time black hole" and you will NOT become a much better player by learning the 17th move in the latest line of the Najdorf variation!

So, study tactics and if you must play 1.e4 as white then you can meet 1..c5 with 2. c3. The "c3 Sicilian" is just fine and takes some of the sting out of Black's game...check chessgames and other sites to learn a few variations. Even the Grand Prix attack might be worth a look to at least get people out of the meat of Sicilian theory.

Originally posted by Darth Sponge
I'm looking online to buy a book on the Sicilian and there are too many to know what to do with. Can someone reccomend to me a comprehensive guide to the defense that's readable from a semi-beginner's standpoint? Something that includes Ways to Beat the Sicilian?