Should I study chess?

Hi guys. I am a newbie here and I have an honest question. Hope you guys can help me out.

I have never really systematically studied chess. I am only familiar with the basic openings, tactics and principles. My chess performance online (mostly FICS) has been quite uneven so far. Occasionally I beat players above 1700 but I often make blunders when I play with people around 1300. I am clearly not a chess genius but  for some reason I enjoy playing and I want to improve.

My question is: do you think it is worthwhile for me to spend the time and energy to actually study chess and improve my game? My goal is to reach a level where I can consistently compete with club level players.

I should add that I am 30 year old and I consider myself relatively intelligent (I am about to obtain a PhD- even though the fact that I spent so much time on a stupid dissertation might suggest that I am might not be as intelligent as I claim to be:))

Thanks!

If u really like chess then I would say why not study it. 

What do you want to do?

Or u could just play and practice. Improve ur skills and u may not need to spend ur time studying it.

If you want to compete with club level players the answers is YES. And i would start by doing lots of tactics training and playing lots of games and looking at places where you went wrong.