How to prepare for a tournament?

Hey everybody. There's a big local tournament coming up in May that I think I'm going to be attending and was wondering what preparation, if any, I should be doing. I know people often say things like "Eat a good breakfast" and "Get a good night's sleep", but what should I be practicing in terms of the chess aspect?

#1
Outdoor physical exercise to boost stamina. All top players have a physical coach nowadays.
For the chess aspect you can play practice games against a strong opponent or even an engine and then analyse your lost games. That is also how grandmasters prepare for an upcoming event.

#3
I respectfully disagree with
"I would brush up on openings. More so the oddball ones that might throw you off a bit."
Say the tournament has 9 rounds. Then you play e.g. 4 white and 5 black. The oddball ones just will not happen.

Op if i was you, i would do some light exercise so that i don't feel lethargy in the playing hall. Chesswise not so much in terms of learning.

Hi!

Excited to hear you’ll be playing OTB. It’s so much fun! With less than two months time I would not place a huge effort into learning a lot of things, but would focus on concrete preparations, such as familiarizing yourself with how you’ll open your games with white, including the main responses (like e4 then know what you’ll play against e5, c5, d5, e6, c6) and respond with black (against e4, d4, and have something maybe more universal against all others like c4, Nf3, b3, ect). You don’t need to have massive theory learned, just understand your main ideas for them.

Second, depending on the time control, play longer practice games online or against a friend or something offline. Prepare yourself more for those longer games, get an idea of your time management- don’t play to fast and have a lot of time leftover each game, use it! Analyze those practice games. You can also do some puzzles each day, doesn’t need to be many, just consistently solve 10-20 each day. Lastly I would remind you to develop/use a mental checklist during play each move, don’t rush to a decision but ask yourself each position what is happening, what’s under attack, what’s the threat. Even an obvious reply warrants at least a moment to consider options, maybe you find a nice move you otherwise would have missed had you immediately say, recaptured. 

I would also say you owe us a post tournament news update with your experience! Tell us what you thought of it!

-Jordan

My First Chess Tournament

Preparation and results. Let me know if you have any questions, I would love to help.