I am working 8-16 o'clock so everything else is spare-time.
I never spent time on chess during work hours.
some weeks I have managed to go to 4 chess tournaments
I come home from work and eat some fast and drive to a tournament.
right now I have a break from otb chess and only use chess.com. 5 years I have hurried up all the time to go to a tournament.
I'm amazed by the number of adults I see who can consistently go to so many chess tounraments around where I live and not have a conflict with work. I'm currently quite young, just got my first job a few months ago, and am already running into some conflicts with my boss not giving me as much time off as I'd like for chess, etc.
When I'm older, I'm thinking about being self-employed, but for now I need the stability a "real" job provides.
How do you all balance work and OTB chess?