How to learn chess ?

Hi, 
So far, I have only been playing games for fun and solving chess puzzles (for almost two years now). When it comes to tactics, strategies or openings, I did watch lessons online, but there was no order to them (literally random videos ranging from some basics to advanced stuff).

However, lately I became really serious about learning chess and not just playing it for fun. So now I want to do it right. I'd like first to redo the basics (since I never covered them properly), before advancing to some more complicated stuff.
What books would you recommend I read in chronological order?
Is there any good video playlist on Youtube would you recommend? 

Thanks to anyone who took their time to read/answer

ps: I'm currently in summer break from college, so I can spend 8+ hours a day learning since I have nothing else to do. How should I split my time? (meaning how much time a day should I allocate to practicing games, or to studying tactics or strategies for example).

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5

2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key

3. Castle

4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe. 

2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board. 

3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board. 

4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece. 

5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

A gold membership of chess.com provides you necessary tools to improve

1. Opening & Explorer: I suggest you to pick an opening you love, such as Ruy Lopez or Giuoco. For example, my favorite opening is Giuoco because it is simple and easy to learn

https://www.chess.com/openings/C53-Giuoco-Piano-Game-Main-Line-Giuoco-Pianissimo-Variation

From this mainline set up, I would go to explorer to practice with Black response up to move 10th. Hint: when you see no more data before move 10th, it often means that your move is bad! You can double check with engine to see how it will destroy you within the next 3,4 moves .

The explorer provides winning chance and master games to help you understand your favorite moves. From there, I jump into engine analysis to play a game with myself. I play a move and check with engine to see the score it gives and how it responses. 

2. Drills: practice essential position, especially endgames.

3. Tactics: not every helpful because of limited amount. Other online sources would provide better practice.

Chess.com has some useful stuff.

Like this
https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

and this

https://www.chess.com/drills

I personally like books too, because I guess I'm old like that. You say you've been casually learning stuff for a while now, so I don't know what your level is.

For beginner / advanced beginner I'd recommend Seriwan's "Winning Chess" series of books. There's not really an order except "Play Winning Chess" comes first, and that one book is probably more suitable for true beginners. After that though I'd read the tactics and endgame books next FWIW.

Something more advanced would be like Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy for strategy, and Silman or Dvoretsky for an endgame book (just google their name and the word endgame and it will come up).

(people say, correctly, that Dvoretsky is an author for (very) advanced players, but his endgame book can be used for lower level players because it gives the basics in blue text. So if you stick to the blue ink you'll be fine (over 200 blue diagrams.)

Then it would be more costly than a diamond subscription! Why don't you subscribe to diamond membership for one year and learn as much as you can from the videos before buying a book. The point with books is that there are hundred of them in the market. When you have enough knowledge, you will narrow down the books you need and save $$$ 

99$ is as many as 5 books.

The OP specifically asked for book recommendations. Honestly I found it odd no one mentioned any.

Yes, there are lots of GOOD AND VALUABLE resources online these days.

Unfortunately my chess journey happened before all that, so I'm old fashioned that way (as I admit in my post).

As far as videos though, they're easy not to improve from, because you can just sit back and watch.

If you want to improve with videos, chess.com is a great place, but be sure you're challenging yourself to be engaged. Pause at interesting moments. Get an analysis board (real or digital) and explore variations on your own. Check your analysis, or check positions you're still confused about with an engine. Stuff like that.

I have John Nunn's Understanding Chess Middlegame & 45 Practical Techniques of Positional Play. They provides a fair amount of example games for me to understand the concepts. Combining chess.com videos & articles, I hope to have a solid understanding of chess strategy

I also use the Guess the Move software (free) to play over the games from Understanding Chess Move by Move, and Logical Chess as well as free annotated game pgn!

Hopefully, I can help OP figure out a good method of learning!

Yeah, that sounds like a good combo 

But nothing can beat a human coach! So, hopefully I can hear your opinions about my games or read your annotations

Sure, I like to analyze games on the forum when I come across them (and if others haven't already analyzed it to death).

If you (or anyone reading this) give me a link, I'll check out your game.

Of course... this guy is probably pretty good too

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/3-hour-lesson-with-gm-jesse-kraai-get-your-game-analyzed

But yeah, I like to look at games.

Yasser Serwan has an excellent series of books that will take you from solid, complete basics, to intermediate and beyond, covering openings, strategy and tactics. I think there is a separate book for each main topic. (opening, strategy, tactics.) These books include clear and complete explanation, along with large board diagrams. The books are physically oversized, which makes them very easy to read. You will not be disappointed. Check them out!

Also including endgame, of course.

"... In order to maximize the benefits of [theory and practice], these two should be approached in a balanced manner. ... Play as many slow games (60 5 or preferably slower) as possible, ... The other side of improvement is theory. ... This can be reading books, taking lessons, watching videos, doing problems on software, etc. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627084053/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf

"... If it’s instruction, you look for an author that addresses players at your level (buying something that’s too advanced won’t help you at all). This means that a classic book that is revered by many people might not be useful for you. ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (2015)

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-books-ever

Here are some reading possibilities that I often mention:

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf

http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf

https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics

Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/

https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf

Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/

http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Chess_Endgames_for_Kids.pdf

A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf

Studying Chess Made Easy by Andrew Soltis (2009)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090448/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review750.pdf

Seirawan stuff:

http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner

http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf

You learn chess by playing it. Go over your losses and figure out what went wrong. Don't do that again.

It seems to me to be a common misconception that order is critical. The main thing is to just try to avoid working on a book that is currently too advanced for you. 

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

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486202909.html

"... I'm convinced that Silman's [Complete Endgame Course] will take its place in history as one of the most popular endgame books ever. It has already caught on with the average player in a big way, confirming Silman's status as the king of instructional writers. He writes in a clear and casual style, and time and again has shown the ability to reach those who feel intimidated by the lofty approach that a grandmaster will often take. ... Silman ... defines what he thinks is necessary to know at specific rating levels. For example, the beginner or unrated player needs to know ... Silman's idea is to wait until you climb in strength before you worry about more advanced material. Then, as a Class 'E' player (that's 1000-1199), one must learn ... Silman's book emphasizes to the student that the important thing is to master the strictly limited material at hand, rather than get confused by endings that won't help your results at that level. Perhaps even more importantly, Silman is able to use his teaching experience and talk to his readers in a way that they can handle, in a friendly manner and without condescension. ... I'll also repeat the point that David Ellinger in ChessCafe makes: '[This ...] demonstrates who this book will truly serve best: anybody who coaches chess. For me, as a perpetually near-2000 player who does part-time coaching, I’ve got in my hands a great resource that will have something for every student, no matter the rating.' ..." - IM John Watson (2007)

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/theres-an-end-to-it-all

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708103149/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review594.pdf

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

I have made this point elsewhere in the forums, but I think it is worth repeating it here...
IMO it is not necessary to read books linearly. That is, restricting oneself to, and finishing one book before reading another book, or reading books in a particular order.  In fact, for the typical amateur I suggest a process of reading portions of several books on different topics at the same time, depending at any given instant on what you are motivated by and interested in. I believe that this approach would provide a more well-rounded exposure to a variety of topics.
An exception to this is where a given book might be too advanced for the player's skill level, i.e., in terms of the concepts that are presented, or how they are presented. In that case it would be prudent to focus on the less "advanced" books, until such time as the player's skill becomes commensurate with that of the advanced book. As an analogy, when embarking on the study of mathematics, attempting to study calculus before first mastering arithmetic and algebra would be an exercise in futility.  Many of the books recommended in the "best chess books" lists bandied about are of the calculus variety, and over the head of the lower rated chess amateur.  In that case the best books may be those written specifically for the beginner-intermediate level player audience.  One must learn to walk before trying to run.