Agreed.<p>If I had to speculate at a high level why the Sicilian opening is so popular for black in professional play, it would be ultimately because the Sicilian allows black to obfuscate white&#x27;s board symmetry, which creates opportunity for counterplay against white&#x27;s fundamental advantage of having the initiative.<p>I will say though that as someone who devoted some serious time into trying to become a master, that opening theory completely changes as you get to the master level and beyond.<p>In tournaments I would play a solid but relatively obscure opening as black that worked very well as a safe opening to guard against highly tactical book play, but when I really analyzed the entire line going out past 12-15 moves with a grandmaster, I learned that with careful play there actually was a way to gain a slight edge for white with it  -- enough to make the opening uninteresting to most grandmasters.  It would play well against masters, but not against a top GM who would know how to play out the line correctly.