Openings...

I have a question - I have a couple of tournaments coming up and they have been studying all of my positions from my past games and I need some new material for example Tim McEntee taught me a couple of interesting openings like The Danish Gambit which I have used a couple of times on this site and the Polish Opening which I think would be a fun weapon of surpise.

The openings will work, not that I would say they are favorites of mine.  The idea of the opening is to get a playable middle game.  White hopes to preserve a small advantage and black attempts to equalize.  In the event your opponent lets you secure a major advantage in the opening you then need to convert it and secure the point. 

Please note, no opening you play will give you a major advantage in the opening.  If your opponent errs, and you exploit it, then you can have that advantage.  An opponent erring is his misplaying the opening or his playing a bad opening.  Of course if you err...

Any mainline opening is a good opening.  What you pick is a matter of personal preference influenced by factors like time, style, etc.

I taught my daughter the Danish to play and she has done quite well with it in tournaments (not that she knows it real well)--the goal is to get a playable position that you are comfortable with and know the concepts of. We do not spend much time on the openings (mostly tactics) but you do want to avoid getting mated early (or losing material early) so knowing the basics is a good idea.

Why not play Bird's opening.. =) .. It will catch them off guard.. they may know that 1. f4 d5 is the main line, but I doubt they will know anything beyond that.. Only thing is you should watch out for the From Gambit .. 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 .. It can be tricky if you don't know your theory..

Yes, if you are retarded you might play it like that... And if that is your continuation of choice I suggest you give up chess ... Bird is playable at most levels save for maybe GM .. My friend is rated 2000+ USCF and he plays it regularly..