Big hopes and dreams crushed
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Your personal goal should not be a fixed rating. Chess isn't any more fun at master then it is at a class level ! A hour a day of study is all you need if even that. Should you obtain master then what? I know of many players that stop playing after getting 2200 because of fear of losing it. It's a cliche but the journey is better then the goal. Play for the fun and challenge
I had an interesting situation. I could have, if I wanted to, persused chess, and maybe could have reached master level. However, that has changed, because I do not have nearly as much time now that I have other commitments.
However, even if I didn't have these commitments, I think it would have been very hard for me to devote 10+ hours a day just on chess. I mean who would really want to study nothing but chess? All day? Just chess? I can understand if you are young and have nothing to do, but if your my age, and all you are doing is playing and studying chess? I don't know, but my old plan on studying 10+ hours a day was a bit unrealistic, or even nessisary, to reach master level at my age. Most people my age do not reach master level ever, so I thought I had to devote extra time to try and get there. Anyway, that dream is long and gone. It's also for me not a good idea to get my hopes up to win 30 grand at millionare chess, as seeing that the money is not guarenteed, and I would have to pony up at least 3000 dollars for that endeavour, and spend countless hours preparing for my opponents, looking at their games if there are any on the chessbase database...
I still lose a lot of games in the opening, so I don't think I'd be considered good, even if I played OTB, which is where I am strong at. I am a lot better at OTB than online chess.
My last hope is to attempt to improve my stagnet rating, and start playing in tournaments on certain saturdays, as I do not have time at all to play during the week.
I play lazy chess, and often give away the game in quiet positions. I also learned some bad habits by just playing only blitz that I know I have to get rid of. I also need to start playing long games, as that is where I need more improvement, and more experience, as I rarely play them.
I will probably never reach master at this point, but I will try and reach at least 1800.
Am I selling myself short? I'm 34. I don't have much time to study chess. Well, I have time, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. Is 2-6 hours a day 4 days a week and on the other days only 1-3 enough to reach 1800 at some point? Is this a waste of time? Should I be focusing on other things? I don't even know, probably I should be the one to answer these questions LOL.
Anyway, I'm asking, what do you guys think?