How old were you when you started playing chess?

I learned the rules when I was around age 5 or 6. I was decent at chess against most of my friends, but chess was just another board game and I only played maybe once a year. Circa age 21, I decided to get back into chess "more seriously" and so I created my chess.com account as a challenge for myself. The rest is history

Chess is mainly pattern recognition, so naturally the more patterns you expose yourself to the better. That is one reason chess puzzles and tactics are really useful in improving a lot. Especially when first learning though, I would also focus on:

-Learning basic checkmates like Queen vs King, 2 Rooks vs King, pawn vs King etc.

-Learn opening principles: develop your pieces early, castle early if you can, control the center squares e4, e5, d4 and d5 and so on; these principles are right 99% of the time and it is easier to sense the exceptions with experience, but with lack of opening knowledge, you will rarely go wrong following the fundamentals.

-Also practice helps a lot. I wouldn't recommend faster time controls though. 10 minute games are certainly the quicker end in my opinion. Playing faster games well is easier once you have more patterns and lines known, but for now it is instructional to take your time and think about the position. Simple things like checking for blunders before you move or not dropping pieces can help a lot at the earliest levels of chess.

(I wouldn't recommend opening study or other complicated topics yet. Chess book notation is usually too boring for beginners, but some beginner books do exist).

p.s. Perhaps sometime we could play some unrated chess games and I could give you my thinking process post-game. I find this exercise beneficial for even the highest levels of chess players; even chess grandmasters often times do chess analysis with fellow players; hearing other ideas and chess thoughts helps add more patterns to your recognition and memory - which makes you more likely to find better moves in your games.

I started chess when I was 15

I started it at 7 

I started at 13 playing once a week with my brother

My brother played me when I was 6 (he was around 16) and he would beat me every time because I didn't know what anything meant. Then I joined my elementary school's chess club in 2nd grade and played ever since. I started playing a lot more often in September.

I was 6-7 when I started playing, I got really into the game, them my sibling broke the chess bored and lost the peaces so I haven't played for about 7 years, I just got back into chess because I found out that my school had a chess club.

Why is it always "How old were you?"  Why not ask "How young were you?"

I was 11.

I'm now 63.

Celebrating 52 years of thud and blunder.

I was 11.

Now 56.

Took a 25 year break.

20 years of blundering my way through a great game that has brought, and taught me a lot.

I learned playing the game at a young age but I didn't care about the game at all before a month ago

8 i think?  But we were also playing the card game bridge and also hearts. When I learned chess my dad beat me 100 games in a row and then I got a draw and soon was wining from him, and then he stopped playing me.

Later at age 14 I was employed at Chess Instructor for the city of Decatur, Illinois.

The city of Decatur, Illinois employed a Chess instructor?  Amazing!

Sorry m y mistake I was age 15. 

No apology needed, I'm surprised they had such a position open for any age!

I started playing since I was 3-4 (I can't remember) with my dad every night and the first time I beat him was when I was 5 (according to my dad).

In hindsight, i wish i didn't. But i learned to play chess at the age of 29.

The best way to learn about chess? Get yourself some game collection books with heavy annotations. Books like Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move or Euwe's Chess Master vs Chess Amateur, Road To Chess Mastery and Chess Master vs Chess Master. Play a lot. Preferably longer time controls. 15/10 minimum. Analyse your games. Try doing some tactics/puzzles everyday. It won't make you Magnus Carlsen, but it will help you get better.