Just saw this thread, because I have recently added 1.e4 for white - and now have both 1.e4 and 1.d4 in my repertoire - and after years of a slightly dubious 1...d6 universal repertoire as black, I started playing 1...c5 which I hadn't touched since my adolescence years..

The most annoying anti-sicilian is somewhat a different term than the strongest anti-sicilian.. I have no doubts whatsoever that the strongest is the rosollimo-moscow combo..

The most annoying though - to me at least - is the Alapin Sicilian..

In a related issue, have you checked IM Andrew Martin's videos on 1.e4 c5, 2.Nc3 Nc6, 3.Bb5 in Chessbase Magazine 125?

Actually, the line I was meaning goes somethig like (I haven't got a board with me): 1.e4 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 Nf6 5.Bg2 d5, and now 6.e5 is a mistake I've played twice!
Black's moves seem fairly obvious when you are shown them but, as I say, no one played like this against me over the board. It was some (small) consolation to find Smyslov was once on the White side of this line (maybe with a Black knight on e7 rather than f6). He acquiesced to a short draw.
Ironically, I won the corr game but only because (I suspect) my opponent followed a sharp line given by Fritz which the engine at first calculates as good for Black but later sees the error of its ways.

LeeRoth wrote on 06/18/08 at 16:21:37:

I used to play 2.c4 all the time and got good results with it whether transposing into a Botvinnik English or a Maroczy Bind.
Then in a correspondence game an opponent showed how Black can get in ...d5 by force and equalise. I haven't played it since although that may be illogical as no opponent played the 'refutation' against me over the board.

It depends on your sicilian repertoire, but I like very much the Meeting 1.e4 recomendation against the closed.

1.e5 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.g3 d5 and let's play some chess. I prefer to define things in the center than to play in the flanks leaving some problems "on the air".

But by the way have you seen Tamaz Gelashvili score with 2.b3? Terrific.

This poll fails to take into account the Basman system with Be2, the self same system that Peter Svidler splated some unknown called "Garry Kasparov" at Tilburg in 1997....
HTH
Hadron the Horrendous

Bibs wrote on 06/03/08 at 05:10:54:

I have read the Alapin or even the Lasker-Alapin quite a few times. Thanks to 2...d6 I did not find that one the most annoying. I voted for 3.Bb5.

I have the same feelings about the Alapin as kalle99 above. The problem with my repertoire is that it usually avoids an e5/e6 wedge (i.e. white pawn on e5 / black pawn on e6). It has a French feeling, only that you're about to castle soon on the short-side (scary! ).

Though, I'm not used to 'passively' defend for a few moves, I find this Anti-Sicilian to be a breath of fresh air as it's teaching me new ideas & a new set-up.

As far as the Closed Sicilian is concerned (which I've voted for this poll), whenever I say to myself 'you finally have a good command of the various slightly differentiated positions', I get to play more and more sophisticated opposition and I'm in need of enhancing my knowledge yet once more.

It's these 2 Anti-Sics that are a bit alien to the d6-Sicilian player, while the Moscow usually leads to normal Sicilian set-ups.