I'm a bit in your situation, having returned to chess after many years absence. I've forgotten a lot of the opening moves, so this is a problem and I don't think my capacity to memorise sequences is as good as it was. Anyway, I find it very useful to practice the tactics and I recently signed up to the chess mentor, as these are very nice ways of learning. I try not to play too many games at once as I fear this is the best way to get overwhelmed.
Back to the openings issue, maybe there is a case for trying to learn a couple of more all purpose openings? The colle for example.
Well, good luck with the tournament and if you want an on-line game just send a message and we can try.
Alan
Well I was gonna make a big post about whether or not I should go to a tournament, but decided that I would just go and have fun with it. Haven't played chess in years, forgotten a lot of theory, but my interest in the game has come back big time. I was in the high 1500s USCF and quit playing because I felt my ADHD-PI was limiting my progress and I really just lost interest in playing. Recently found a good medication and found myself really wanting to play and having fun with chess again. Thing is, the annual city tournament is on July 2nd. This is a problem, since I have forgotten chunks of my opening and endgame knowledge and I'm just not where I really want to be in general.
So I'm here to ask one thing: Given being rusty and having under a month to prepare, what should I spend my study time doing? Should I really catch up on my openings? Should I devote most of my time to tactics? Play lots of games? I'll definitely be taking a balanced approach and finding a decent schedule after the tournament is over, but I really just want to see how I can perform at this one tournament and be as prepared as possible. I don't expect many here to understand, but I want to see if I can actually surpass my current level. What would you guys do in my situation?