Chess on Steroids = StarCraft 2. 

no.

If I can master it in less than a year, then it's not worth playing.  More importantly it means the game play isn't deep on the level of chess.

My brother got this BTW and I logged on with the week pass you get to check it out.  People already had that "fastest map" crap up.  I really hope the serious tournament SC2 players actually play real maps with limited resources otherwise it's a total joke.

How do you operationally define "master"? I dont even think I could master a yo-yo in a year.

There's no definition, I'm using the term loosely.

I basically mean within a year you could improve so much for there to only be very minor improvements to make... such as learning a new map, or slightly adjusting the timing of attack or something... I mean, after you learn all the keyboard shortcuts and practice using them consistently... that's nearly half a player's ability right there.

Most people don't play this way though, they play for fun.  If you really take it seriously, look for any small errors and way to improve, you'll be better than 90% of the people you meet in a relatively small amount of time.

Starcraft2 is easier to learn then chess, still, the similarities beetween the two amuse me.

Although if its always the same "pros" that come out on top at open tournaments, then there is something more to it, or else you would have a legitimate chance to make a living out of it.

Poker is not so hard to master either...You used to always see big names...but since it became popular, theres to many big names to count...Maybe the same thing will happen with that game.

Thats the problem of chess, its just to hard....for mass popularity.

My friends keep pressuring me to get this game.  So far I've been resisting...  I was a pretty pro Warcraft 3 player if I don't say so myself.  It took a long time to get good- the best wc3 players were not so unlike chess masters now that I think about it.  There's quite an art to high level RTS play.  I could see this being true of SC2, but I haven't even seen it played yet.

The main similarity is in 'tactics,' I guess development too.

Books on expert performance usually say that it takes about 10,000 hours for someone to master something. I don't know where they got that number from.

i would argue with this.  certainly a lot of amatures do well in the really big events where the fields are large.  just the law of averages and the luck factor that is involved assures that.  however, you still have the top pros the consistently do well year after year.  how many of the amatures that do well in the big tournaments disappear and are never heard from again.  how many amatures are in the running for player of the year?

   Once Fritz 12 gives me a "master" status, that's when I will start even referring to myself as one. Although that's not the same thing, if one of the best chess programs ever calls you a Master, you tend to want to believe it.

   -Mark

not sure about fritz, but in chessmaster you could just create a username "master" and be there already. 

LOL!! You can do that yeah, but if you don't reach 2200 or more status, then yer screwed. You don't want to have a "Master" ID on CM and be ranked 550 LOL

you afraid the computer will laugh at you? 

ok, to be fair, i do worry about that sometimes. 

   Sometimes I can hear it laugh when I make a stupid move and blunder the game away. If you listen closely, I'm sure you can hear it. But honestly, I hear enough voices, so, maybe it is just me 

that's why i keep my speakers off most of the time. 

Pretty sure I can achieve a 2200 FIDE rating with my yo-yo by 2012. Just gotta work on my aim.

I've been playing Sc2 at a decent level recently and the way it often parallels with Chess is pretty evident. There's an opening and a late game with various maneuvers you need to scout and prepare for (there's no real end game unless you somehow mine out every mineral on the map).

Chess is definitely the deeper game, but remember Starcraft has a real professional scene in Korea where the best players are legitimate celebrities (on par with more physical sports stars). If you think that you can "master" the game in a year I invite you to try.