How long does it take to get decent at chess?

[MyTurn2Raise]

i got upto 1600 rating in about 3 months of playing roughly 20 hours per week

This would be good enough to pwn your friends

There are plenty of books to skim
lots of free internet sites as well

i found the unspoken game while looking for a book to improve my chess and never went back

it seemed quite difficult to reach the top levels and there just isn't the same amount of cash involved