English Chess Forum

Hi
has anyone figured out how to make a living to be able to play chess?
is anyone doing anything to be able to make it?

thanks,
FM Charles Galofre

Be in the top 100 in the world. This is how it works with most global or major sports.

You can't make a living just from playing. Not unless you are good - and I mean very good.

But the Karpovs and the Fischers of this world are rare.

There may be a living to be made out of coaching and writing.

If you make your living out of coaching, you can give up on the idea of excelling as a player.

You may excel as a player. You may excel as a coach. Probably not both.

All of the above may no longer be possible in the same way or extent in the real world as they were before even when the otb world of chess gets back up and running. (Note that the original poster is trying here and in his other arcane threads to promote himself in the virtual chess world, of course.)

Chess streaming is pretty big business these days and some of the biggest stars on YouTube are not even GM's - if you have a bit of technical knowledge and some personality it's possible to try that route, though the market is crowded.

Andrew Bak wrote: ↑

Sun May 03, 2020 11:04 am

Be in the top 100 in the world. This is how it works with most global or major sports.

Excepting, say, football, golf, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, either code of rugby, cycling....

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun May 03, 2020 3:30 pm

Andrew Bak wrote: ↑

Sun May 03, 2020 11:04 am

Be in the top 100 in the world. This is how it works with most global or major sports.

Excepting, say, football, golf, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, either code of rugby, cycling....

I had meant to say Individual sports, as team sports function in a completely different way to individual ones.

I would say that tennis and golf pros outside the top 100 don't make a glamorous living, not dissimilar to chess players outside the top 100.

Well maybe, but nobody said anything about "glamorous", and given that the hundredth-ranked player on the USPGA tour is on more than half a million bucks I am not sure about the last bit either.

write a chess book

The FT had an article in Saturday's edition on tennis earnings. The 250th ranked man won $124,000 in 2019 (womens 250th: $80,000). One needs to add on endorsements and deduct competition costs.

The gist was how skewed the distribution was. Nadal won most with $16.4m. By eye on their graph about 50 players won more than $1m and 275 won more than $100,000.

Hi I made chess player in Florida United States I am a titled player I have been playing for over 10 years I wanted to know if you happen to know how to access resources more importantly how to get money or make money and everything else posted on the title of the ad

Same question merged into another post.

Top 100
Coach
Teams
Tournament
All interesting but where does (@) come from to pay for expenses?

charlesgalofre wrote: ↑

Sun May 10, 2020 12:23 pm

Top 100
Coach
Teams
Tournament
All interesting but where does (@) come from to pay for expenses?

Top 100 guys get money thrown at them from all angles just to turn up, they dont really have much trouble.
Coaching can net you an ok "workman" rate (probably higher for masters of renown) but it is a crowded market and you need to be bringing something worthwhile to the table as most students are pretty savvy these days and know if they are being misled.
Teams is much trickier, you have to find yourself a team that already has a sponsor and negotiate conditions with your manager (from what I am aware it usually covers transport, accomodation and an appearance fee, but not being a grand master I have never actually been in such a position)
Tring to win money in tournaments is almost gambling unless you are seriously good, pick your events carefully and have a large base of friends around the country to stay with.


Also, streaming, which has not been mentioned much seems to just be a case of getting yourself noticed and picking up a good fanbase which will get you a cut of advertising revenue from whatever platform you operate on - the good thing about this is you really dont have to be anywhere near a top level player to be a good streamer, just have an engaging personality.

But, to think ahead as we chess players always should, why do you want to do that? It is true digitalization has increased revenue sources, and a youtube channel of your own done differently to the norm to the point where its news-breaking might offer revenue, other than that you need to get your rating up to 2700+ I have met many 2600 players who never get invite to big tournaments. I don't recall any of them saying they were particularly well off. Sorry but it seems like the nature of the question is what is of most importance. If you are not a 2700 player, chess won't make you rich. 2500-2600 could give you an income although its unlikely to remain sustainable.

Why don't you forget about chess, I mean let's be honest, it is rather boring . Texas hold 'em Poker has lots of money, the maths you need is a piece of piss to put it mildly, you just need to know how to read people and yourself.