Chess can become a sick obsession. I know. I've been there. I have played chess for 12 hours straight on more than one occasion. It leaves you rattled and with nothing good to show for it. Contrast that to spending twelve hours with a mixed bag of skills: learning to play the guitar, watching a tutorial or two, taking in a couple TED talks, etc.

My greater point might be that if you have x amount of hours per day to devote to something it is probably a bad idea to devote too much of it to Chess. You are going to get nowhere by playing chess the way you learned it. The only way to start climbing up the ranks is to become a human database. That takes you in a very different direction.