Slump

I've been remiss in posting my games of late, but I've still not broken out of my slump I mentioned in my last post. I have still yet to win a game on my new DGT board (only losses and draws). Most everything is due to time trouble or just spacing out. I've been working on my time trouble and I think it is improving, but there is still more ground to cover.

Slow Games and Opening Repertoires
I've starting playing two slow games per week (about G/120), one against my usual sparring partner OJ and one against fellow MDLM graduate Chris Kilgore. Chris is up 2-0 so far, but I'm learning a lot. Playing more often was a major necessity in my chess improvement. Now that I'm playing more I'm focusing on other areas, mostly on pulling together an opening repertoire since I really don't have one. Sure, there is no substitute for thinking during the opening, etc., but I should have at least a basic idea of what line to play against all the major openings. It's pretty bad when I am out of book against the Ruy Lopez on move four. If nothing else, knowing a little more about the openings will help with my time management and add extra confidence to my game.

Anyway, I'll post some recent games soon.