I'm still pretty much a noob, but i can play sicilian lines just like lou steele did ^^ ....when i started actually thinking about openings and wanted to play more seriously, I researched the English and the Sicilian and learned those lines as deep as possible. Since the English is a mirror of the Sicilian (with the extra tempo as white) many of the lines end up in similar places. Its been useful to me to start learning openings this way.... not only is the Sicilian statistically the best e4 response, but the English is a great weapon offensively, since people don't see it as much.
The same apples to the kings Indian defense and the kings Indian attack. Getting familiar with both by playing them exclusively for a while hardwired those longer lines into my smooth simian brain, and helped me get used to countering traps and such that people try to set.
So now if im black playing against e4, I use Sicilian. Against d4 I use kings Indian. And I'm comfortable against the English since I've played it myself so much.
Tldr: im dumb and I rock Sicilian. You can too
Lou Stule, I’m glad you had fun with this game. I noticed this was your first win as Black in correspondence chess in a while. Congratulations!
I understand.