Idea behind 2.Be2 against Sicilian

I've seen plenty of resources about 2.Be2 against Sicilian but I still fail to see the point of this move. I guess it brings a Sicilian player out of book. In this game, we are both out of book (at least I am) but it was too easy to equalize.

So is that it? I have similar games with this line and never felt any danger at all.

[Event "Casual blitz game"]
[Site "lichess.org/SOEny0Zf"]
[Date "2025.03.13"]
[White "Anonymous"]
[Black "Anonymous"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "SOEny0Zf"]
[UTCDate "2025.03.13"]
[UTCTime "19:57:00"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[ECO "B40"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense: French Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 { B40 Sicilian Defense: French Variation } 3. Be2 Nc6 4. O-O Qc7 5. d3 Nf6 6. c4 a6 7. Be3 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Re1 b6 10. Qc1 Bb7 11. a3 d6 12. h3 Ne5 13. Nxe5 dxe5 14. Bg5 h6 15. Bxf6 Bxf6 16. Rf1 Rad8 17. f4 exf4 18. Qxf4 Be5 19. Qg4 Bc6 20. Rf3 b5 21. cxb5 axb5 22. Raf1 b4 23. axb4 cxb4 24. Nd1 Qb6+ 25. Kh1 Qc5 26. Ne3 Bxb2 27. Nc4 Bc3 28. Rg3 Be5 29. Nxe5 Qxe5 30. Rgf3 b3 31. Rb1 b2 32. Rff1 Ra8 33. Bf3 Ra1 34. d4 Qxd4 35. e5 Qxg4 36. Bxg4 Rfa8 37. Kg1 Rxb1 38. Rxb1 Ra1 { White resigns. } 0-1

I dont know where you have heard about this move, but it is very rare in the database and is too slow, I suggest you should play 3.d4 instead of 3.Be2 be2 is too slow and is not in the spirit of sicillian, in most cases black would very comfortably equalise or even get a edge in the opening against 3.Be2.

@thefinal_move said in #2:
> I dont know where you have heard about this move, but it is very rare in the database and is too slow, I suggest you should play 3.d4 instead of 3.Be2 be2 is too slow and is not in the spirit of sicillian, in most cases black would very comfortably equalise or even get a edge in the opening against 3.Be2.

It's a known move among White's anti Sicilian sidelines

No, I am not gonna play 3.d4 or Be2 at all. I play the Black side of this game. I don't play e4 openings.

It is definitely not known. In the online database which has 416295 games after 2...e6 only in hardly a thousand games is Be2 is played, even in the Lichess database, it is only played in 1% of the games. there are almost no resources, I would agree with you that this line does not pose any problems for black and black is quite comfortable, It is probably only played by amateurs who don't know much theory.

Seems a nice bullet move, I see Firouzja tried it at Blitz. I played it otb in some White Lions but nowadays I prefer 3 d3 before Be2. But as you stated the idea itself gives Black easy equalising play and to me has not much value other than getting out of book.

Alekhine advocated this Be2 move before playing d4 against e6 Sicilians in his best games book but his arguments were beyond understanding for a modern Sicilian player. There is some more recent material online about Be2 and basically playing a Classical Dutch setup in reverse with f4 and Qe1-h4 but obviously Black won't lose sleep over it.