Nowadays the Moscow variation is extremely popular, and one of the reasons is the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen. His approach to the chess has changed the way of thinking for many - not to strive for advantage in the opening, but get an easy play with a logical development of the pieces. Don't be mistaken though - Magnus Carlsen may play off-beat variations but he does know them really well. Right now pretty much all of the top level players who choose 1.e4 play a decent amount of the Moscow variation as well.
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The Paulsen Sicilian, also known as Kan variation is one of the most practical options for Black against 1.e4. A perfect mix between the Scheveningen – Taimanov – Hedgehog schemes that allows you to play a fighting game without many forced lines. Many strong grandmasters have employed it regularly and achieved great success with it, Lajos Portisch, Ilya Smirin, Vadim Milov just to name a few. Not just that, champions like Carlsen and Kramnik have played it successfully as well.
The main incentive to play the Sicilian Kan is to take your opponents into a battle where talent and creativity overweight memory.
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