Eric discusses why Grandmasters are poor
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- čas přidán 11. 11. 2023
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According to Hikaru, even for the very, very best players--top 10 or top 20--playing professional chess is a miserable existence, constantly filled with stress and worry about whether a period of poor play might mean your sole source of income suddenly disappears or gets sharply reduced. He makes it clear that he came to hate it, and would never return to that life. And he's one of the best of the best players. If you're "only" top 100-200 with no governmental support, it's going to be a tough, tough road unless you have a solid side gig or a wealthy family.
Yes, the feeling to win all the money in the world is so miserable, lol. Don't listen to everything that Hikaru says - they make very, very good money - they can always choose to play less tournaments, but can't help it.
Well, Hikaru DID choose to play fewer tournaments.
Drinking game: Take a shot every time Eric says "This is one of the nicest events in chess"
Thanks, now I am drunk as hell
don't forget to drink some water after!
I'm just a poor GM man. No way I can afford all that drink
@@bigolboomerbelly4348TFW you go to make a "GMs can't afford that" joke reply but someone already made the joke 😭
Ha! easy is this should make not drunk me
I wonder if this is one of the nicer events in chess
Considering the fact that one of the Brahs is a homeless man, I guess Eric is correct
Hobo attacks magnus
Is Aman homless?
@@123string4yes, but he has the most pure heart in the world. He has heart of gold that Aman guy.
@@steelsteez6118 Let's hope Aman gets adoped and finds a good home.
If your efforts aren’t in demand enough to make a living off of, it’s a hobby, not a profession. This is common when chasing a fun profession. If the market is over saturated, only the very best tend to make decent money.
Updated FIDE Grandmaster Norms (Nov. 2023);
- Classical Time Controls
- Presence of International Arbiter
- 2600+ Tournament Performance Rating
- Poverty
To me chess at the highest level seems to have become well-heeled parents who support their children emotionally and financially as they become as good at chess as possible. For anyone else it is poverty.
Hikaru estimates his step dad must have spent close to $120,000 over 8years support him to be a strong GM UpTo 2650 rating.
And his stepdad isn't rich so it's a massive sacrifice on his part. Magnus dad is wealthy so that's a different thing but your point is valid.
Unless you’re Indian. They get paid a salary to play chess under a nationalized oil company.
It's just the life of an artist.
Bobby Fischer won 1 million USD for the world championship match in '72. This is equivalent to 7.3 million USD today. The total prize purse for the recent world championship match was ~2.2 million USD, to be split between the two players based on results.
yes outside of one tournament between two players there's no tournament that comes even close
Next Video: Why Grandmasters have sugar mamas. :-P
Most GMs aren’t fit like Eric so it’s out of the question 😝
Eric, big thanks for exposing the FACTS and actually talking about opportunity cost. I respect this Instagram vs. Reality type content. Really helps kids/normies/non-trust-fund babies before they end up committing years to something that they might regret because they think there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for everybody who reaches GM status
Yes because thousands of „normies“ Fall for Instagram propaganda that it’s so profitable to become a gm every year, lmfaooo what are you waffling about
Yeah I am sure it is worth it to do once or twice for the experience and networking. But once you're experienced it just doesn't pay off.
So glad my elo is below 300
It's one of the many reasons Kramnik seriously doesn't understand the chess world. He was from Russia at a time Russia funded your life completely plus he was talented enough to get noticed by Kasparov when he was barely a master. What he is seriously failing to understand is that not all 2600s are actually 2600. He eluded that Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Jospem) and Olexander Bortnyk are cheaters because despite being only 2600 they occasionally win TTs. What is so difficult to understand Kramnik? Clearly they are NOT 2600 they just rarely or don't play classical chess. Not everyone has the opportunity or funding. It's really not that complicated.
I know this one guy who is really good at monopoly, maybe even the best in the world! And when he won a tournament, guess what they did? They gave him $100 in monopoly money! What a slap in the face. Hang in there brah!
It’s interesting how I understand these exact issues at a lower scale. I stopped playing chess shortly after I hit 1900 USCF. I never really hit a roadblock and feel like I could’ve hit expert. But most of my friends I had playing chess quit already. These tournaments are super serious and are super taxing. (Two 3+ hour games a day.) Chance of making money is super small with all the up and coming kids. So I quit and I honestly don’t regret it and enjoy playing blitz online. I’m sure the more you go up all these downsides just get amplified.
I talked to a couple of your friends they said you never could have hit expert.
@@sparksdrinker5650 I’m sure I could name who these “friends” are lol
were you playing on one of the nicest tournaments though?
@@20teverify Yes! I was the only non titled player playing in the FIDE grand Swiss! Lol
@@sparksdrinker5650Bro why
Thanks for confirming what I always suspected: even the very top GM's cannot get financially-free if all they do is only play chess. And if you have to create an alternative source of income - chess becomes just an accessory, a helping tool for that side business (like for a streamer or for a teacher). Sad, but makes perfect sense, especially in more expensive countries.
Except for super GMs (2700+ classical rating). Or maybe only the top 10 in the world. I am not sure.
Thank you for this. The top chess hustlers in NYC probably make more money than the average GM from chess.
Hey Eric, I just wanna say I’ve been watching your videos for years and even though I’m not a professional chess player your videos give a great insight into the workings of the system itself! I hope that for the players’ sake there is more funding brought to the game
My main takeaway is trying to figure out if this is one the nicer events on the calander..
its one of the nicest events in terms of covered expenses, the prestige, and prize fund which means the budget is near the top. But factor in the competition/training, the length of the tournament, and the prize structure and it’s not so clear. Especially if the goal is to look for the most + EV option in terms of income
but I know you asked it bcs I repeated it ten times 🙈
@chessbrah haha true, but I did find the video rather informative about the chess world, very good insight. Hopefully something is done to make it better or more worth while to invest that sort of time, and it starts with videos and discussions like this.
Saw this live. It's an insightful look into the economics of Chess at the upper echelons.
I used to fence competitively and that is even worse. Haha.
I entered a couple international opens and nothing is covered - and you still have to pay an entry fee lol. Made top 64 once and that's no where near any prize.
Once I became married and employed I didn't have time to keep training at a high level so I ended up dropping it.
Oh you mean physical chess
I know personally a former Olympic Champion at fencing who has won another ~ 100 medals in her career and I can tell that she lives a decent life but she’s nowhere near to be considered rich.
After retiring she was employed by the Romanian Fencing Federation and she works a 9-5 job for a living just like everyone else.
Decent, yes. Rich? No. Former #1 in the world, that’s the way it goes in some sports.
Besides the pay, personally I also feel like there are more rewarding things to do than chess profession-wise, even as a hobby, especially when you are spending years if not decades devoted to it. Becoming a scientist, doctor, lawyer...so many interesting professions that allow you to travel as well. But I still cheer for Eric every time he plays :P. He has a great personality and the chess world would not be the same without him
Doctor and lawyer are two of the most boring professions
A couple of things come to mind.
1. Chess isn't even understood by the average Joe, so your not going to draw a massive audience at this point in time. Maybe as chess gets more popular (and it is) you will get more people interested.
2. I think that 1 or 2 hour time limit games would appeal to a wider audience. There is too much dead time in 4 to 6 hour time frames to hold the viewer.
Guess you’ve never heard of test cricket rofl. (But seriously, even there 20/20 is more popular)
Thanks for this insider information, I thought it was very interesting. I never planned to play professionally, but this inspires me to enjoy the process of playing and learning the game now, instead of focusing on the end goal of a high rating.
I'm 2750 fid aand i decide stop now tournement
Actually very depressing topic and it's been like that for years, if this keeps going there won't be a bright future for otb chess... Breaks my heart
It may be depressing, but I've been playing and following chess for decades. I remember when Spassky defeated Petrosian for the World Championship in 1969 and received the "Princely" sum of $2,000..... and, yes, the Soviet players were subsidized by their government, but players in the West, like Larsen and Fischer were on their own. So, we've come a long way.
@@jackm4457 Bent Larsen wrote about chess for a local newspaper, but I don't know how much they paid him. He also wrote some books.
This is great that you and people on your level are raising voices and speaking about this. It's soo sad that chess pays ZERO, but as a player you put every single day 6+ hours to be a 2600+ player.
lol that's your problem not knowing chess won't pay much for their fans. Go get life outside dude
@@hakim7894 you don't know me, "Hakim", but thanks for the warm words. ❤️
Thanks for sharing your views and feelings. Chess has always been underpaid if such a thing exists. Young people think all professionals have succeeded financially, but it has never been true. Only after Fischer chess has become a more "lucrative" way of living. Most of the GMs and IMs are coaches and/or streamers. Some people, when already established in life play for fun and to pay for the living of the masters (I use to say that I am a patron of some guys because I go to tournaments far away, spend money, and go back home with a lot of "I had a won game against x or y").
Really informative, thanks for sharing. I knew competitive chess wasn't very lucrative but nice to hear a breakdown.
Just remembered Steve Albini’s article in Maximum Rock’n’Roll maybe 40 years ago explaining why rock musicians are broke. Real.
Even in Hungary playing professionally is out of question unless you have a sponsor. And the sponsor may want you to switch national associations...
I can see how there is absolutely no incentive to enter this contest unless you just want the title or status of winning. We would have more of a show if there was more money involved.
Exactly. I have a career and the only reason I’d pursue chess hard core would be for my own personal development, not for financial reasons b/c there’s no money involved.
@@sanitary103 hopefully soon there will be. I see it growing popular each day.
Not enough people watch Chess in a competitve setting I feel which is why its not well funded. If people watched Chess like they do with say... Football, then it'd be insane amounts of money.
The question is how do you take the game of chess and propel it to heights of Football or Baseball...
This is tough. But how do you fix it? Other individual sports can have sponsors for equipment or clothing. Very hard to do in chess.
You forgot to mention that all of those prize amounts are BEFORE taxes too. Take out, say, 25% for taxes and that $2000 is really only $1500 after tax. That's like 1-month of rent in most places in the US/Canada... Oof.
Their goal is to make top 20 where the invite events pay more. This is one of the only events where Super GMs will risk their rating. Any event that allows journeyman GMs to play vs Super GMs isn't going to have great conditions for the journeymen. They could probably get fantastic conditions to play some national open where they risk their rating vs a lower rated field.
That's a good rant. This is reality. The numbers don't add up.
Haven't watched the video yet but I know why. If they cared about making money, they wouldn't "waste" time getting good at chess. Grandmasters became grandmasters because they wanted that more than money.
I think the average GMs make money mostly from local tournaments where they get to compete against semi-professional or amateur titled players who had gotten some titles when they were young and now they only play for leisure and fun.
Money for these local tournaments comes from local sponsorships.
At least that’s the way it goes in my country (Romania). GMs make a living not only by winning prizes but also by personal sponsorships (they play, they offer visibily to their sponsors) while every other player gets to have an active vacation and play some chess.
For playing in international tournaments they usually seek personal sponsorships and they don’t spend money out of their pockets. That’s the way it has been for 30 years, I got a sponsorship myself to play an international tournament when I was a kid.
When I found out the prize fund for the Carlsen - Caruana World Championship was just 1 million euro split 55-45 between winner and runner up - man I was pissed! If it's that much for the most prestigious title in chess, how much less is it for other GMs?
Levy's printing money left & right not by playing competitive tournaments but by creating content (book, streaming, youtube, merch, commentary, adverts etc).
He is making money yes, but so are many other streamers who don't even play chess. The reason why he is making money has nothing to do with playing competitive chess. He is making money by being an entertainer.
But then again Levy is a top 5 chess streamer. Most chess streamers earn less than him.
Shorter time control and more Fisher random is to my opinion the way to go for future for "classical" chess. This to make it more attractive for viewers and sponsors.
Not really
Only reason you would play is if the exposure helps your stream. That’s an equation only you could determine
Agree this situation is bad, and must be very discouraging for top players. I think a lot of the commenters that extol the virtues of "experience" don't understand the work and talent required to be one of the top 100 players in the world (at anything).
16:07 these are some smart people though if they were able to become top GMs. I know that top level chess doesn't necessarily translate to intelligence. However , the level of dedication, preparation, planning , and critical thinking ability it takes to become a gm or be a top level GM can definitely translate to real world skills and make them successful in so many different industries. They just need to apply themselves and im confident they can learn practically any trade they want.
I play Chutes and Ladders professionally, and it doesn't pay near as much as some of the other board games, like Chess. I'm just grateful that it's alot easier on my body than some other careers, like swinging a pick in a coal mine for 40 years.
Yeah
If every player received a decent minimum amount for playing one game in a tournament you’ll run into a problem that tennis has… there is little incentive to win and the players simply go through the motions of playing. At least the tournament should always cover complete expenses.
People always compare themselves to people better off than them - the same here, comparing chess to poker / other high paying sports. What about comparing to e.g. Scrabble? Do you think someone who dedicates their life to Scrabble should be able to make a living out of it? How much do you think people should make from dedicating their life to chess? How do you decide whether the top 100, 1000, 1000000 chess players make a living? I guess the issue is that in the end you have to be privileged to play chess (or other poorly paid sport) without worrying about money issues, which is probably not going to be addressed until we have global equality which might be a little while... I think it's a bigger issue that some sports players are multi multi millionaires than that it's not easy to make a living from playing chess.
A lot of elite sport or activities do not bring money at all and have a cost .most athletes would not be there if the parents don't cover the cost of the tournaments, hotel travel food at an early stages the cost can be very high if you live remote at least with chess it is a life time of actions unlike most sport where the body clock stop you past 30.and private teaching is a lot more possible.
But yes national federation need to have budjet increased.
In most sports only the very top players make much money. For example, in the tennis world the vast majority of players on the tour are only making a subsistence level of income. Most professional athletes end up making most of their income from coaching or giving lessons.
Only the top 30 in chess make consistent money. In tennis its more like top 200
Pick a random bench warmer NHL or NBA player and they make hundreds of thousands a year
@@doctamoneystacks Those sports are much more popular than chess. Even people who don't follow sports have heard of MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA players. People who don't follow chess have maybe heard of Carlsen, Fischer, or Kasparov, but even then it's uncommon to know who those people are.
This is pretty similar to Golf when you aren't in the top 200 odd.
It's amazing how difficult it is to monetize chess given how popular it is worldwide
Most people just want to play, they are not interested in chess as spectators
Classical is hard to monetize cuz it's too long and boring.
Would it help to have a chess tour with more structure? Then FIDE could try to strike a deal with a network provider.
@anotherelvis that could improve it for sure. If it were me I'd look into broadcasting it live on streaming platforms and offer incentives for viewers like loot drops, giveaways, etc...
This is ridiculous. There should be no case when professional player of anything makes no money at all from any official high level event. I had no idea this is reality in chess - I thought that low ranked players do not make much, but definitely make at least something comparable to some average regular job. Organizers of chess events need to make far better job to get enough funds for events. And btw calling chess a sport is also totally ridiculous and I see bunch of people doing it. Chess is simply a Game. If chess is sport then so is high level of scrabbles, cards, sudoku, computer gaming and so on. People should get this right.
I agree with you Eric. Its terrible.there are 7 or 8 billón people and only about 1500 g.m.they should at least make a living. I heard nakamura say that in chess only top 10 or top 20 g.ms can make money in chess.
Dude is keeping it real…so gave a thumbs up.
"The reality for a person like me is if you never make it to the top 20 in the world, there are very limited ways to make money in chess. Teaching is the most consistent because people want to get coached by a grandmaster. That’s nice money. Writing books, doing lectures, doing appearances. I do live commentary online for tournaments around the world. So a grandmaster has to cobble together all that stuff. *Otherwise you’ll starve*. You can’t make a living only if you play." -GM Maurice Ashley
I think it’s like this world wide change from things we do for fun and an economy develops around it to how much money can it make cost
Why is the audio kinda fuzzy when he talks?
Remember this is a GM talking. Club players can have a lot of fun playing chess
There's many people who make nothing who are musicians, performers, play sports, play games. I happen to be a keyboard players in 2 bands. The money we make playing gigs barely pays for the gas I put in my car. However, I have a full time day job as a programmer/analyst making good money.
Pity they didn't put in just another $80K then they could have given everyone attending a minor prize of $1K, at least a token of appreciation for their 3 weeks of time spent.
I tell a secret. In "every" sport there are only a few people who earn money. Most of them spent money. Sounds sad but that´s part of the game
Bro what 😭
It is indeed an activity that pays little when you consider that it mobilizes the intellectual capacity of some of the smartest people on the planet.
I would be curious to learn how many of the top players can actually make a living just playing chess, without teaching, streaming, or making books, videos, or courses. I would guess perhaps only the top 10~20 on the FIDE list could earn a living that way. Now if you include those who supplement their income via teaching and content creation, I'd bet the top 1000 players could make money.
Well, its all a question of basic economics really.
How much money does chess bring in ?
Its not Football, its not NBA, its not golf.
You are not buying Eric's t shirts.
You are not Buying Hikaru's shorts.
You are not buying Hans Anal beads.
Why are most "gamers" and pro-gamers broke?
Same reason, but even more people play games.
Chess can only be a viable economic strategy as an individual if:
You are THE BEST (there is only 1 of those, sometimes you can make the argument that top 3 matters).
You are a showman and chess is your medium.
this is the same problem with kickboxing and muai thai.. I fought for 9 years in Australia and New Zealand. Had around 30 amateur fights and 8 professional. The usual payment for a starting professional is a couple of hundred bucks a fight. The most i was offered was $10k US to fight in Munich with similar expenses budget but the other guy broke his arm 2 weeks before weigh in and the fight was cancelled. Say goodbye to 3 months of preparation. It's heartbreaking but there's a lot of sports out there like this. Most of us survived on sponsorships from local businesses and teaching classes. Even John Wayne Parr was only making 20-30 grand a fight for a large chunk of his life and it only take one bad injury to end it all or at least put you on the sidelines long enough that you need to go back to working again. That was 10 years ago for me now. From what i understand the scene hasnt changed at all. The sport is dying and most fighters are training mma with the ambition of landing a contract with the UFC. Most of those guys are struggling anyway. It's crazy
My own view is that they should think about how to make it more appealing for spectators. Classical time control is too slow for most casual sports fans. Draws are also boring. Faster time controls means fewer draws and faster games naturally. But classical time control is seen as the "real" chess. Titles like GM are awarded for playing classical chess, not rapid or blitz. The big money tournaments are also for classical time control, and it gets even longer for events like the candidates tournament or world championship. If you compare the top 100 professional tennis players with the top 100 professional chess players, the former probably get a lot more money in aggregate. Maybe the #1 chess player makes more than the #100 tennis player, but the average is much better for the tennis.
Crazy to think you can be top 100 in the world and make mcdonalds wages. Even less when you consider the hours they put in. My dumb ass is nowhere near top 100 in my field and making 10x that amount
As a professional chess player, I can agree about playing in tournaments - for casual grandmasters it's not worth to play in them, thus most of the time it's either for fun or prestige or change the environment for a time. However, Eric, you are leaving out some very important points - chess professionals can make pretty good living by doing other things like participation in international chess leagues for guaranteed income, coaching students or writing courses so it's not all bad as you describe. Those casual GMs who're basically living from playing tournaments and can't adapt to the new world - I'm sure they're not doing great. I do believe that it's much better to be a GM and learn to earn for the living with the skillset that you've acquired as a chess professional, rather than doing some average desk job to bring home the bacon. I'm proud of my job.
19:33 - Chess isn't sexy enough to get major sponsorship money from Rolex... Let's be honest, there's probably only like 3-5 professional chess players that Rolex would TOLERATE representing their brand in any official capacity (and Magnus is likely the only one with any realistic chances of ever being associated with/sponsored by a brand of Rolex's stature).
Bottom line: don´t pursue a carreer in chess.
Probably makes more sense for younger players. To gain experience and to travel for free.
Only younger players in the top100 though, and that drastically narrows it down
Well, guys, I don't know about you but when did anyone start assuming playing all day would earn them money ?
I PLAY all day long and I get nothing ? How strange is that ?!
But, but, but, I am the best in the woOooOOrld !
Well, well, ... money is something we earn as a counterpart for helping our fellow members of the society, right ?
If you do an activity for your OWN enjoyement, how can you hope to get money from that ?! You are not helping anyone playing for yourself.
That is just basics, folks.
Have a good day
I'd love to hear what Bobby Fischer would have say about this these days.
He was crazy.
This is an excellent video discussing a sobering somewhat depressing subject. The problem is that chess tournament organizers have not found a way to sufficiently monetize these events to enable them to offer money to all or most participants. I’m sure many talented creative minds have grappled with this issue and come up short. I believe one raise to raise money from the public would be to allow the public to bet on the outcome like they bet on horses, but go further an allow the public to bet on the outcome for ANY player - even one who finishes out of the prize money, with the payoff for a winning bet based on some portion of the funds bet on that player & some portion of the bet funds going to the players themselves. This would encourage the public to bet even on the bottom half of the table. I don’t know if anyone has every tried this. I don’t know if this will backfire by encouraging cheating. But if it does help more GMs make a decent living, than unintended consequences can be dealt with after some experience is gained.
Very interesting
Chess streaming really seems to be the best and nearly only option to survive off this
There’s also coaching. Average GMs, IMs and even lower rated players coach kids and make a living by coaching. Parents know that chess develops mental skills and they want their children to learn the game even if they don’t get to become successful players. They simply consider chess useful in life for their children.
That's a very fair point. I suppose I was getting at "entertainment" rather than "competition". But what you said is true.@@XVRMEDIA
Vidit stopped streaming and won a ticket to the candidates :-)
Did he win the prize money?@@anotherelvis
I think the era of classical chess might be dead. It would be much easier to monetize chess events if they were fast-paced, exciting, and more viewer friendly. I think bullet/blitz/rapid is the way to go in the future.
Agree. I’d never watch classical but I like bullet/rapid
Imagine being cut for reasons independent of one's competence: welcome to the corporate life.
Hi. I am grandmaster. Poor in money but rich in woman.
We all know that Eric just needs to be a Billionaire hedge fund manager (he's got the financial mind) ....then he can fund these tournaments the right way.
9:00 it’s just unfortunate. I personally wouldn’t want my career dependent on the government subsidizing me, knowing most people probably wouldn’t want their tax money going to something they see unproductive when there’s homeless, sick, and wars, and all this other bs going on. I guess that’s the world we live in, just get ahead and don’t feel bad about it.
Interesting topic.
I suppose it all comes down to the funds available from the sponsors to host the event.
I don't think the exposure a company gets from sponsoring chess events is anywhere near other, more popular (or visual) sports.
The top heavy nature of prize funds is not exclusive to chess professionals. However, to attract the very best players to a competition requires most of the prize funds to go to the top three competitors. Competition organisers know this. Players like Magnus, or Nakamura simply would not turn up if the top prize was $5,000.
I do however support concepts such as FIDE implementing minimum prizes for all players, for a competition to be recognised as a ranking event. If this was the case, then all players at the Isle of Man would be guaranteed at least $5000 prize money, with additional prizes awarded to the top players. Unfortunately there are many that believe that this is against the overall concept of competition.
I honestly believe that there are really strong (potentially 2700+) players who abandon the professional game long before they reach their potential because they don't want to live like a pauper. Which IMO is an overall detriment to the future of the sport.
good points all around, thx for sharing Mark!
@@chessbrah I believe that a lot depends on the country the chess player is from.
For example, in Poland 20 years ago chess was underfunded, but this has started to change after the professionalization of the Union, and also thanks to the appearance of Duda.The largest companies in Poland began to sponsor the Association and the best players and talents. National teams have sponsors.
I think Duda has at least $100k from sponsorship alone. However, players also earn money in the league, in clubs that also have their own, local sponsors, and many good Polish players also play in the German league. Some school get IM/GM for school lessons which are mandatory in Poland in first school classes.
Of course, the Russians have the best conditions in terms of sponsorship.
There are also countries that have problems with financing chess players, such as Hungary.
I think chess in Canada has similar problems to Hungary. Like you, Mr. Eric are TOP best player in Canada.
@@ElComendante1928That’s they way things go in Romania too. Personal sponsorship is the norm for many GMs and there are many local tournaments where they can also win prizes quite easily. Federation is also involved in helping the top GMs and they pay expenses for participating in international tournaments.
I’m sure Deac, Rapport, Shevchenko and Parligras had their expenses (including daily allowance) paid by the Romanian Chess Federation for participating in Isle of Man.
'Sport' 😂 Get a bit of life dude
Most Pétanque players are in the same situation, you really need to be the best to make a living playing.
Even in golf, there are a limited amout of pros that can earn a living by playing in tournaments. You have the PGA (now merged with LIV) that has maybe 150 with their "cards," and the bottom 50 are close to being dropped and replaced by kids coming out of college. And you do have the European Tour and now an Asian Tour. But even with all the monentization of golf, most "k Pros" make their lving in golf by being club pros, teaching. Tennis is much worse.
I think their is a chance that Chess may soon support as many as 50 "Touring Players," but all the others will have to teach and publish and stream.
I'm confused. Isn't this one of the nicer tournaments?
Parents need to tell kids like the game tell them this truth if they plan do to earn life. Your analysis worth it
Winning tournaments is only one way to try to monetize Grandmaster skill. Entertainment by streaming, coaching, book creation/subscription based online learning, pay-to-play one on one zoom sessions, the ideas are only limited by the grandmasters creativity. The key to a grandmaster, or anyone else, trying to make money is VALUE CREATION. Playing in tournaments is only as valuable as what the organizers are able to generate by sponsorship money, and then that is divided amongst players who place in the money spots. Right off the bat, you are getting a cut of a cut. YOU are the money generating asset, so you need to remove as many steps between the money and you.
what are those prices? flying in europe was less than 100 eur? but it was less than 10 years ago probably... ?
As much as it must suck to not be able to make a full time living playing chess, it could be worse you could have a real job.
but there is no demand for chess either so.. it's not engineering, the fact that someone even earns 2k by playing chess is a wonder of it's own
Mentioned was Nakamura and Caruana , they are the exceptional players that are both multi-millionaires who can afford to jet around the world without worry of finances . The average GM never will approach this status .
the prob is most chess player look average in beauty, have 0 swagg and a nerd demeaner. this doesnt attrackt eye balls.
Eric, get a diamond chain - a big phat rolex on your moving hand and have some attitude on the table. you need to make chess sexy!
Yeah
your girl can afford to pay all her trips, 5 star hotels, partys, fancy cameras, audio, lights, etc.. while being 2100 and the best players in the world cant afford a basic living.. XD what a dilemma
his ex girl is already a millionaire ;)
Pro chess pays even less than being a pro musician? Brutal.
Music is something you don't really need to understand to enjoy as a public so it's more accessible... and it's one of the basic things in life anyway. We learn to talk by singing almost.
Tf. I can enjoy despasito even without understanding one word in the lyrics and do you really expect people enjoy watching fat dudes sitting on chair playing weird game?
It could be interesting to see some actual business accounts of a grand master.
Do they actually have an income? How many players have a sponsor? What can you earn from teaching chess? Can you earn money from online chess?
How do chess players pay their seconds?
Also: Has the income of chess players changed over the years? How many chess players could make a living from chess in the eighties? Has the internet popularity been good or bad for chess players?
15:19 Don't support these guys meme is still a thing :D
I tried to find out where that meme originated from but couldn't figure it out. Could you fill me in?
who doesn't love chess? - a rhythm to the brain laddie daddy de laddie daddy da - and the bead goes on and the bead goes on and the bead goes off and the bead goes on and the bead goes off and the bead goes on and the bead goes off and the bead goes off - 11010100
Chess GM and Harvard economist Ken Rogoff says every year he receives an unsolicited letter from one of the world's top chess players. It is a different one every year but the question is the same: how can I get out of chess.
Anyone who knows the ID of the outro song?
Darude - Sandstorm
Seems like the answer to making a living in chess is to move to a country with a crazy low cost of living.