Reti Opening

Worth learning?

not commonly in use, but i like to use it sometimes.

I really don't like it. Which means if you ever play against me it's probably a good idea to use it :)

As black, it's probably a good idea to learn how to play against it a little, as white It depends I guess but I never play the reti without the intention of transposing to a Queen's pawn opening line

I don't think it's a great opening at lower levels.  It requires a pretty thorough understanding of positional principles and a pretty broad base of opening knowledge, due to transpositional possibilities.  I've toyed with it occasionally, but I don't feel like I really know how to use it.  As a 1400s player, you're better off with a regular classical open game.

If you like closed positions with lots of squirming around in tight positional manouvers, then go for it. There are lots of sneaky opening sequences that leave Black stuck in crummy positions. Or you can be dragged into a QGD/English transposition.

For defence, they say sicilian has the best result against e4 openings. Hence, is is the best opening for beginner?

No, it's probably one of the worst openings for beginners.

What is it about opening questions that makes people space out and start ballyhooing their favorite opening, regardless of how inappropriate it is to the question asked???

The Sicilian is a BLACK defense to 1.e4.

The Reti is a WHITE opening system. It could transpose into a Sicilian from the white side, if Black plays 1. ... c5 2. e4. But not many Reti players would care to  face the sharpest reply to an opening move they don't play. OK, now back to the subject at hand...