Preparing for the U.S. Open

          The U.S. Open will be in Dallas this year. I'm very excited, because this means I will be able to join! (Even though the entry fee is over $100.) The event is a 9 round Swiss event, and I'm going to be playing in the under 1400 section. It starts August 2, which is only 2 weeks away!

         How do I prepare for this important event?  First and foremost are endgames. I hate endgames, but my coach forcefully stated that endgames are the most important part of chess. I decided to bite the bullet and study endgames. I have Lev Alburt and Nikolay Krogius's book, Just the Facts. I have also been using Chess Mentor's endgame course's and Chessmaster 10th Edition's Endgame lessons. I am not a master at rook endgames, but all other endgames I am OK with.

        The next thing to do is to study tactics and strategy. Chessmaster and Chess Mentor have both of those covered. A couple of months ago, I had no idea where to put my pieces, resulting in me losing the initiative every time! I have improved at that. As for tactics, Live Chess is very helpful. Sometimes I sac pieces just to test my attacking skill (who cares about a few Internet rating points?) and once I even sacrificed a queen! I lost that game though.

         I have a very strong opening for someone of my rating. I am confident about my repertoire. The funny thing is, I'm a pawn grabber and a gambiteer!

I will play the white side of the Two Knights Defense with Ng5, winning a pawn. Also I love the white side of the Winawer Poisoned Pawn variation.

BUT I ALSO GAMBIT! I play the Evans Gambit, the Boden Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4! Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxe4 4.Nc3!? Nxc3 5.dxc3) and the Fried Liver Attack!

          When I'm start the U.S. Open, I will post all my games and annotate them. And I'll post some grandmaster games too!