Sicilian help

A few days ago I played in a g/30 tourney. My opponent in this game was a 2050, and he played e4,and as usual, I played the sicilian. However, I had never seen this variation before, where white plays Be2 and Nb3- it seems to stop all the sicilian tricks (i.e., Qb6, Qa5, d5, Nxe4, etc.) and I soon found myself with a very inferior position out of the opening. The thing was that this guy just pushed up his kingside pawns without castling, etc., and what seemed like a primitive attack got me in a losing position!
I realized I blundered on move 22 with 22... fxg6, but even then I was probably lost or at the very least much worse. Would any sicilian experts care to help me with this variation so I can avoid such a debacle next time? Thank you.



This is where I stopped notating because I had less than 5 mins left, but white has a won endgame.

Originally posted by chesskid001
A few days ago I played in a g/30 tourney. My opponent in this game was a 2050, and he played e4,and as usual, I played the sicilian. However, I had never seen this variation before, where white plays Be2 and Nb3- it seems to stop all the sicilian tricks (i.e., Qb6, Qa5, d5, Nxe4, etc.) and I soon found myself with a very inferior position out of the ope stopped notating because I had less than 5 mins left, but white has a won endgame.

Perhaps there are other methods of defense but this game came quickly to mind...

Alekhine-Botvinnik 1936 (annotated)
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008353

Edit: Play through this game too [linked to in the kibitzing in the above game]. Gorgeous game.

Fischer - Reshevsky 1961
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008402

Thanks for the games; I looked at them and will try to study them in more detail 🙂