New player lf advice.

I played chess a lot as a kid and somewhere along the road I forgot about it. I guess maybe it was the other more physical sports that was taking up much of my time. anyways, for the last three weeks I've become somewhat obsessed after finding a video on YouTube about magnus facing chess hustlers here in NYC. I watch ton of videos about openings and sit through many matches of all the current and past best in the world. heck, I've even subscribed to chess.com lol I've been playing against mostly computer and I'm hesitant to start playing against people. Do I start by playing Blitz or something else? I'm also an aggressive player and I love trading pieces as much as I can because I feel like the less material we have the better I am somehow at making decisions. Whenever I play black I find myself playing too reactively and have a hard time going on the offensive. any advice would be great. also a practice partner would be nice. I'm usually available sunday-wed.

if you like blitz i would recommend at least 10 min games but would suggest even 15/10 rapid games

one of the great things about this site is all games you play are saved so it's easy to go back and analyze your games when you are finished

since you are diamond member do as many tactics as you can handle then do 50k more

another thing i like to practice here are endgame drills

it's important to start playing people rather than computer because pc just plays... weird- especially when it tries to handicap itself to accommodate less than max levels

good luck and get in there

"..., you have to make a decision: have tons of fun playing blitz (without learning much), or be serious and play with longer time controls so you can actually think.
One isn’t better than another. Having fun playing bullet is great stuff, while 3-0 and 5-0 are also ways to get your pulse pounding and blood pressure leaping off the charts. But will you become a good player? Most likely not.
Of course, you can do both (long and fast games), ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (June 9, 2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive
Possibly of interest:
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 (1949)
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
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
Seirawan stuff:
http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm

thanks guys. I really want to get better. competition is fun to me. I love to figure out solutions to problems and chess is like Brazilian jiu jitsu (what I train at now) are very similar in this regard. two ppl going into a strategic battle where we have to figure out answers to the problems the opponent is giving us. I love it. really appreciate the advice and if anyone else has anything to add please do.