Returning after Victory, Upcoming Posts, Gambits

After being stuck around 1400 USCF for what seems like an eternity (15 some odd years or so?) I received my updated rating 

This was a HUGE success for me, not only in my performance, but how I have been thinking about the game of chess, and even life relating to chess.  For years I thought I could "get by" ignoring the ending, trying to memorize thousands of opening lines that didn't suite the types of games that would help me learn, and practicing tactics over and over.  

Not to mention getting help, and http://www.attilaturzo.com/ has been just that.  He has really pushed my game forward, and I can't thank him enough, and look forward to more lessons soon.  

It has been several months after the last tournament, and I have been sort of basking in my @175pt rating gain in a single showing. Not much chess at all, but I have been thinking about it a lot.  Specifically, some of the things that troubled me of my draw and loss in the previous couple OTB games.  

One thing I have always enjoyed has been going "out of book", playing little known "traps" or sidelines, even if they aren't so strong, and I have been thinking and trying out some ideas playing more solid gambit lines.  As white, I have been playing the King's Gambit, but haven't found a lot of material on it with the various sidelines.  Mostly just "play d6 or the counter as black" ...

But I do have a very good book on black gambit play vs 1.d4 called

Attack With Black

It's been a while since I have looked through this book, and I want to do some serious deep investigation into it's chapters, which cover the Benko, Blumenfeld, and Vaganian gambits, among others.   

I think revisiting this book with the aide of Chess Position Trainer, chessbase, and articles here on chess.com will be a great way into playing more gambits, particularly because I feel more confident with black right now.  

So, I will be posting maybe a post per chapter, and there are plenty of them, with lots of diagrams, thoughts, side lines, etc from a newly 1500 players perspective (which I hope is better than some GM saying it is a good book, because I am using this blog to track my exact methods and progress through the ranks)