How to prepare for a Tournament

So I've decided on the first tournament I will attend, at first I was thinking I would go to one on the 7-8th of November but since it was open I decided instead to go to one on the 28-29th of November which has under 1200 and under 1600 divisions.

Because I am unrated I will be in the under 1200 divisions I am sure. I have a couple questions if any experienced people could help out.

1) What is the best way to prepare? I have almost 2 months to get ready, with a couple hours to practice/study every day.

I have been reading Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move and have Silman's Endgame guide to read after I am finished. Additionally I've been watching Aronian's lectures on Youtube.

What proportion should I study, and what proportion should I practice, and what proportion should I play? Should it be one hour of each in a three hour period, or should I study more or should I play more?

2) I'm kind of worried that because I am going in the under 1200 section I'm going to be playing a bunch of kids and their parents will be mad at me if I beat them... Are there a decent amount of adults that enter the under 1200 or lowest rating divisions of these tournaments?

Its not my first ever tournament, I went to one a year when I was a student between grade 6-8, and had decent success with a third and second place, but this is the first tournament I'm going to where people will be skilled at chess.

I'm excited, but unsure of how to prepare!
Thanks for any help!

I wouldn't spend any time on openings because at that level your opponents are going to deviate from theory pretty quickly. What do you estimate your strength at? I just had a recent tournament where I only lost to one NM with wins against 2100, 1900, and 1700 pretty easily. For a week leading up to this event I did tactics here on lichess for about an hour per day. U1200 I would focus on short term tactics and take as much material as they're _going_ to give you.+

I don't know here and at chess.com my ratings are about 1200, and I've played above 60 games on each so that's probably accurate... although I've been doing better recently.

I don't know how CFC ratings work apparently they are usually a couple hundred higher then their FIDE comparisons, and internet ratings are probably the same...

Sounds like I should do some more tactics, I will work on that.

now until a week before the tourn:
check your repertoire for holes. repeat the basic endgames.

a week before the tourn:
eat good food, drink and sleep enough. Dont do chess, instead go outside and relax in the sun with friends. Do some sport, Tennis, Frisbee, whatever.

during tourn:
No meat, no coffee, no sweeties, no alcohol. Keep on eating healthy food, drink enough water or green tea. During game, if you want to eat, eat nuts and raisins. This is the best brain food.

Manage your thinking time. Before the game, write down the % time allowed to use every tenth move on your sheet. Eg if 2 hours for 40 moves that would be 30 minutes per ten moves, aka 3 minutes per move. Make sure you stick to these times. Really, this is more important than finding the best move! But just a little bit :-)

Regarding your question 2: Yes, in lower sections there are more younger players but it is still mixed. Parents will of course not be angry at you if you beat their kids. Only if you throw pieces after them :-) Also, you dont take away any prices from them as there are special prices for young players anyway.

If you have the choice, join the higher section, you will definitely learn more.

Forgot something: If it is your opps move, use his thinking time to figure out the ideas in the current position.

So? How did you fare?

@TheDeepOne

Looking at your classical games here on Lichess, and your tactics rating... Most of your recent games are finished within 25 to 30 moves.
That could mean that you need to work on your openings and tactics as well as your middlegame, or just 1 or 2 of these 3.

Working on tactics is the easiest.

Daily do tactic puzzles, and continue with that for at least 3 to 4 months (and go on after that if you can).

For breakfast I do every day :
First : http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-puzzle-of-the-day.php
Then the 3 at the top right here :
http://newsaboutchess.com/
And then the daily puzzle here :
http://www.chess.com/forum/category/daily-puzzles

In your case I would register for free (if you have not yet) at chesstempo.com or even better, get a premium membership for 1 month there, and find out which tactics you are good at and which ones you are bad at
(You can find out by pattern, e.g. pin tactics, desperado, skewer, weak backrank, boden's checkmate etc.)

Then work on the ones you are weak at.

On top of that you could join my chess study group
and go through the forum posts, and join the vote chess matches :

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/achja-chess

Good luck, and enjoy your chess !

@special Olympics the tournament is in November, although I am going to another short game tournament this weekend which will be right near me.

@Achja thanks for the help. Is it worth it to join those sites instead of just doing puzzles on Lichess? Thanks for the help I may join your group.

@TheDeepOne, #8

I find the tactic puzzles on Lichess sometimes a little bit artifical looking, and some solutions are very much "chess engine minded" (Winning with a beautiful tactic, but then *having* to grab that 1 unimportant looking pawn at the edge of the board, instead of a more logical looking simplification which also is winning).

Also, Lichess does not use "tags" for tactic patterns, and there's no comment option.
So, basically you will just be "talking" to a chess engine, and only for one winning variation.
As a chess beginner or somewhat above that level, for each Lichess tactic puzzle, you will not be helped with what kind of tactic pattern you worked on (e.g. Pin tactics, desperado, skewer, weak backrank etc.).

The puzzles weblinks I gave are for getting into an easy routine of "daily" puzzles.
By using them you would do 5 puzzle per day.
But you can of course do more per site if you like.

Regarding tactics in general : Chesstempo.com is really the number 1 website for tactics. There's no doubt about that.
Register for free and try it for some time, check your own tactics statistics, and you probably will agree.

On chesstempo you can also change your preferences for "ALTs". Read the chesstempo FAQ.

p.s.
Tell me your username on chess.com and I'll send you a group invite to make things easier for you.

my chess.com username is the same as here on lichess "thedeepone"