What is White's main plan in Sicilian Keres variation? I want to learn a new opening in the Sicilian defense called the Keres variation. What is White's main plan here?
[FEN &quot;&quot;]

1. e4 c5 2. Ne2
Disclaimer: there might be other ideas too.
I used to play this some time ago against sicilian. My idea was that I liked closed sicilian positions (2. Nc3) if black did not play the &quot;main&quot; setup against it (that is, 2. ... Nc6, 3. ... g6 etc). So with Ne2, I still could play the closed variation against, for example, 2. ... e6 and 3... d5, and after 2. ... a6, but if black replied 2. ... Nc6 I could play 3. d4 ( or 4. d4) and return back to the &quot;open&quot;, more sound sicilian. What white gains is a little bit of flexibility, and a chance to confuse the opponent if black has an inconsistent repertoire. I knew one guy who played d6-a6 setup against open sicilian and e6-d5 against closed one, so Ne2 was very confusing against him.