On the second day (yesterday) I made myself at home at Chessgames.com. That's right, I spent a good portion of training time on day two making all sorts of discoveries.



The point is simple. Find your favorite database and do some exploring. Refresh yourself on the openings you plan to play in whatever you're preparing to do (either preparing for a tournament or for a club meeting, or just for fun look at your favorite opening systems). This has to be an important part of the training process because otherwise you will be perplexed far too soon. Professional chess players probably spend the bulk of their time in this "phase 2" training but for me it is sufficient simply to refresh my openings and move on. It's not the time to pull out opening surprises in my view ... for one, I have no clue who my opponents will be to prepare.