Im 28 is there any point in me taking up chess seriously? would it be a waste of time?

You're not.

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So for my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you…

from personal experience, you spend a lot of time alone.

I think I'm gonna marry a cow...

Something I can milk, love and plow.

A rhyme and double entendre. Fun.

Yes, I was replying to BadBishopJones3's rhyme.

The happiest man on this earth
Does not judge his woman by girth
However it's said
To keep her well fed
May leave a poor man in the lurch

I've deleted an explicitly political post above while leaving one that's a little borderline.

This argument about men and women is also skirting the borderlines, and it's also completely tangential to this particular thread. If you want to continue that discussion, please do it elsewhere rather than in here.

Thanks,

David, moderator

A beginner who wants to be great
Is asking how much it will take
The people it seems
Are ignoring his dreams
And ask about how to get dates

Interesting poem.

I see you play from at least November and your puzzle rating is 1350 with a 54% success rate. Personally I don't think your hopes are lost in terms of learning as you grow older at least from a scientific point of view and my own personal experiences, I'm 33 and jumped on the hype train 20 days ago after seeing everyone play chess on Twitch and by studying some hours a day got my puzzle rating to 1801 with 67% success. Ofcourse I'm far from being a solid player and have to catch up on a lot of things and it will take a lot of hard work and trial and error to see what works best at least for me personally, but I do believe with enough hard work and focus you can climb and improve fast if you somehow find a way going about it the right way. That being said it will be a long time pursued where you have to be willing to work really hard and be passionate about improving and enjoy studying and no way you will get a over the board master title and even if you were the one in a million genius that could at best reach a FM master starting that late having a family, job or study wont help. But if you want any hopes in becoming a strong player whatever that is for you makes sure it's reflected in your efforts and numbers, and what not is already might be yet to come.

Also in your study try to be effective (this goes for study in general) reflect on your study and results and one really important thing study at your own level even if that's reading kids chess books or watching material that isn't sexy at all, it's so much more beneficial than studying some fancy books aimed at strong club players with years of experience under their belts. It will go in ear in and the other out without the foundation needed to fathom it.

[Removed - please read my post above: if you want to continue this particular discussion, do so in another thread.

David, moderator]

Look, I'm real sorry you have poor hygiene and no social skills, but the mods already said to get back on topic.

"YoU hAvE nO sOcIaL sKillZ!!"   coming from a chess player  .   Anyways, regarding the topic, it's straight forward to be honest, age barely matters in becoming a strong player. The OP can become strong enough to be a very good club player and win some money in local tourneys.  It should not be that hard for him to be honest, a few years of deep study and u can make it to the leaderboards of local, small level club tournaments or weekly cups or something