Chess is so addictive it made me drop out of CS grad school.I would compete online every day from 10 pm to 3 am.That is not a good schedule if you want to make it to an 8 a.m class.
My next door neighbor of the time went on to having an ELO rating well in excess of 2400, back then he was already fearsome and part of the draw was to play against him and watch my own game improve as if by magic.