[qed]

To become good at chess, what you need to do is learn to recognize patterns and how you can make them unfold in your interest. Since you don't have enough time to learn by trial and error which is probably not the most efficient way anyway, you might want to pick up a chess strategy book which teaches you the most common patterns (why reinvent the wheel?!). Once you learn to recognize and implement those in realtime gameplay, perhaps you can also come up with your own games.

In the future, you might also want to try picking up playing an instrument. It's the same strategy except it involves more physical aptitude.