z

Yeah, it's like those poker championships but for nerds.

For the OP, 

Do the tactics trainer EVERYDAY. 

You might find a useful piece of thing that you would see in your games. It's best to learn mating patterns. And remember, play with a motive. Don't just go on blabbering checks, instead try to build a setup so that the check you would be giving would cost him material or simply the game. 

1v1 in big tournaments.

Top 3 earnings with Starcraft: Brood wars:

1. Flash $407,228.05
2. Jaedong $355,712.95
3. Bisu $256,507.13 

http://www.esportsearnings.com/games/2/starcraft_brood_war

Top 3 earnings with Starcraft II:

1. MC $365,713
2. Mvp $363,520
3. NesTea $256,713

http://www.sc2earnings.com/

Don't get your hopes up though. The most top players are all south koreans, with a few exceptions.

use the study plan that's on this website! it is great and you will learn the good things very fast.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

Mate -and I say this with all due respect- you certainly favour that "as a foreigner" line. 
We are all foreigners.
Always/already.(as that Frenchperson said...) 

OK, some of the advice given here can only be implemented (videos, mentor, tactics trainer) if you have a premium membership, which I see you do not have at the moment.

However, there is a lot of stuff out there for FREE that will get you on the right path. For tactics check out Chess Tactics Server and Chesstempo.com. They're both free, and you can do tactics to your heart's content.

For looking at complete games, I suggest chessgames.com. Again free, and there are thousands and thousands of games to study. You can sort them, too. So, if you want to begin by studying all the games of Paul Morphy, it's a piece of cake to select his games and then just play through them.

For videos, look no further than YouTube. You'll find everything from advice on openings to endings to tactics, ad infinitum. One of my favorites is the series of videos by Mato Jelic. He looks at great games and plays through them for you, pausing at critical moments to explain what's going on. Each video runs from 5-10 minutes, and they're a great introduction to the game.

If you want to learn some common openings, go to chessopenings.com. There are a number of great videos there explaining the most common openings in the kind of depth that beginning and intermediate players need. It's not for masters, of course, but then you and I are not masters.

As to books, Wolff's "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess," and Chernev's "Logical Chess Move by Move" have been recommended here dozens of times, and they're a great place to start.

Finally, remember that this is a journey, not a race. You'll find much to enjoy along the way, and you'll get more and more satisfaction as you continue to play. But real improvement takes years, not days or weeks, and you'll find your "rating" fluctuates more than the stock market. But keep plugging along, and it will gradually improve.

Good luck.

very useful information. thank you for sharing it.

thanks

99th

Mato #1 chess commentator on youtube. Short, instructive, to the point, excellent voice, funny, videos. Really, the best of the best I have seen so far on youtube.

Leaving the KoreanMillionareKon for a tic...

bbkFroSty: Just to parrot others, try On-Line games and you'll free yourself of a lot of stress. People were playing 'on-line' games  long before the internet took over.
It was called Correspondence Chess. For those of us who were lighthouse-keepers (in another life) it was essential.

Also people often think you're cool with a half-played game of Chess alongside the violin and the syringe-case and the cabinet of exotic birds(stuffed).

I used to play county chess when I was younger and so I am used to playing the longer games where you have much longer to think and when I came back on this website for the first time in years I got demolished because I'm out of practice and I was playing 2 and 1 minute chess when I had never experienced anything near that short a time. I was used to playing 30minute+ games and those are the games I am half decent because I played son many long chess matches when I was longer. I know this is terribly cliche but its all about practice it took me years to get any good at it. But you can get better much faster if

you review your games just like you have done with halo and learn the basics and basic openings. Queen's gambit playing as white is a personal favourite of mine. It's all about repetition and thinking about why your opponent may have made that move and what can you do to counter it or beat it. If you memorise some openings it's a lot more enjoyable because if you get into a dominant position at the start controlling the centre with their defence in disarray you have a much bigger chance. I'd recommend buying a chess book or reading tips from the Internet because many of the people on this website are very good players and it ultimately takes practice!

Anyways I hope this goes some way to encouraging you to carry on playing and thanks for the add.

Good one!

That money looks good and i like breaking up streaks and being the first to do something that has never been done or done in a while.

We all have our own opinions, but I would suggest ONLY playing online chess and ONE game at a time. Give yourslf time to look at a board situation without feeling you have to rush to succeed.