The aggressive advance of White's d-pawn forms a classical centre (pawns on e4 and d4), a strong formation which threatens to gain a large space advantage by a subsequent d5 or e5. Black is therefore compelled to break up White's centre. In the Sicilian, this is easily achieved with the exchange 3...cxd4, the control of d4 being the major reason the c-pawn was moved to c5 originally. With this natural move Black acquires a majority of central pawns and half-opens the c-file.

Wikipedia has related information at Sicilian Defence

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4

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• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.