Why would you be satisfied to reach 1700 or 1800?

hell yes

chess_gg is right!

I believe that with a decent amount of skill (understanding, strategy,visualization, technique) any person can become a "club level" player. Which traditionally is considered the range of 1500-2000. But i personally dont believe anybody could crack 2000 without some intense memorization, and exhaustive familiarity with complicated endgame tablebases. Currently, for me, i cant imagine that kind of training as "FUN" maybe as i get better ill change my mind. But i want to master the fun parts and leave the hard stuff to the pros. For me that means being satisfied with my own play at the club level.

Believe it or not, people at any level still "give" away pieces and lose by simple mistakes.

That's true, I just dropped a whole Bishop in a turn based (correspondence) game! I had 3 days to move and still messed up. But unfortunately, my games aren't the only thing I have to focus on right now. Partial excuse, pretty weak and lame, I know.

A ton of effort is ~1 hour a day?  That's hardly enough to keep from getting rusty much less make any improvement

                           1800  Would be just fine.

The OP's question is pretty good. My answer? At some point the chess progression gets increasingly time-intensive; most folks take this time to clarify why they still play. A few people go on, mostly, I think, because there's not a lot of opportunity cost to the extra time. They devote years and years to getting an extra hundred "points," but they value this, and you can't argue with it. Chess culture has a lot of folks in it who've been raked over life's coals, and the game is a psychosocial resolution.

Anyway, ask a master if he or she has more fun than they did when they began the game. I think you can anticipate their answer, because winning isn't going to provide you a place in this world, not a substantive, sustainable one. I hope even the most stymied chess player realizes that they are not "beating" anyone by playing a game. Unless you consider it in a dyadic way I guess. If you're going to follow Bobby Fischer's Rules of Chess, you'll probably end up with the same result too. Enjoy that ;)

At first i was really excited to make progress in chess. got to 1800+ in a year and a half at 23 years old.

Then i realized that its just a game and i dont really care. Im at 1860 or so, could i make it to 2200 by studying? Yes.

But what will be my monetary gain by doing that? NADA. its fun, but i just dont care enough.

A lot of great comments and thoughts by all you members.

1700 wow, 1800 I always envy those with this rating. 1200 I wish I could help them. I am around 1579 maybe.

Seems I heard that God helps those that help themselves.

The climb up is too slow. I was once over 1600 only to be brought back to reality.

If I play players lower than me I climb up but that means I am not playing some one higher and that means they are stronger than me. I do not like to go lower in rating.

Seem that I don't have a plan in the midgame. I just react and hope I make the right moves to end up in a good endgame for me or to mate my opponent before the end.

I put my personal goals on a post and so has other chess.com members. We are going to review them after January 1, 2016. Here is the link: I am not doing so good on bowling or chess.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/2015-chess-new-years-resolutions-or-goals

Bye

I would be reeling in shock if I reached 1700. I'm currently 950ish in daily chess. Do you think I'm wasting my time by playing and enjoying the game AND trying to get better?

Never a waste of time to play chess, unless you are neglecting important responsibilities. If you enjoy chess and struggle to get better, that's a double-win.

Personally, I stopped trying to improve past 1700 after I settled into a career (computer programming) that had a lot in common with playing chess, and used many of the skills I developed at the game. When you've spent 8 or 10 hours on quiet abstract problem solving, your idea of relaxing is usually something other than another few hours of quiet abstract problem solving. 

if you enjoy playing why would it be waste

i was 900 3 years ago, played more than 2000 games here, watched some bilitz and GM tournaments, read some articles and 4 chess books, now i m 1500 

the more you play, the more you learn and enjoy

i believe, in a few years i could manage to go up to 1700-1800