It seems that there is no money in chess purely as a player unless you are in the top 50 in the world and have access to either government funds or other forms of support. Couldn't imagine playing in a tournament and relying on it for my livelihood.
This is beyond ridiculous. I think that not only FIDE but also other organizations such as USCF should work harder to get sponsorships that can increase the overall profits of the participants. It is easy for us to criticize and I understand they are in a challenging situation but I still think that some sort of corruption must be taking place because not a lot of improvement has been seen within the last couple of years. Perhaps companies like chess.com and the play Magnus group can help with this by offering tournaments with bigger prize pools. Regardless, some sort of program must be put in place by FIDE to help support players better.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Setup a program where professional chess players commit to going to jails/schools for troubled children to help them direct their energy to something constructive like chess rather than stuff like drugs etc. Perhaps, grandmasters could go to one of these places three or four times a year in exchange for financial support from the department of education or rehabilitation programs.
2. Use big names such as Hikaru and Magnus to help FIDE find more sponsors and increase the prize pools in their tournaments.
3. I think a lot of universities should offer elective chess classes offered by GMs. Why this is not a thing is beyond me.
4. I don't know... Rather than complain about FIDE, I think we should use this energy to help them come up with solutions to this dilema.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Setup a program where professional chess players commit to going to jails/schools for troubled children to help them direct their energy to something constructive like chess rather than stuff like drugs etc. Perhaps, grandmasters could go to one of these places three or four times a year in exchange for financial support from the department of education or rehabilitation programs.
2. Use big names such as Hikaru and Magnus to help FIDE find more sponsors and increase the prize pools in their tournaments.
3. I think a lot of universities should offer elective chess classes offered by GMs. Why this is not a thing is beyond me.
4. I don't know... Rather than complain about FIDE, I think we should use this energy to help them come up with solutions to this dilema.
I guess the problem is that the populartiy and pulbic interest in a certain sport greatly affects the prize pools available. This basically means that a medium skilled soccer player is likely to earn more money than a pro level chess player from playing the game simply because soccer is more popular in most of the countries around the world than chess. So the solution for the dilemma must either be to make chess popular enough that the organizers will be able to increase prize pools due to higher income from merchandising and advertising income or FIDE has to rethink the tournament structure and switch for instance to online tournaments. So even though the situation seems sad this situation is shared by many other sportsmen who only made the mistake to become professional but in a sport where being a professional does not guarantee a living.
Chess is not a sport / game which is very conducive to being televised, unlike poker, for example.
You could teach someone the rules of poker very quickly and the way it is televised has immediate and easy to understand drama on every hand.
In chess, it's very hard to understand or follow the game for a beginner. In fact, the stronger a player is, the more entertainment you get from watching the top level games. But to a weak player , watching Magnus vs Nepo is completely cryptic without commentary. It's like watching a game show in a foreign language. Conversely, series like "Guess the Elo" by Gotham Chess are pretty popular, because there are 20 blunders in every game and they are easy to understand.
That's why top level chess has very little money for top professionals. It's not watchable.
You could teach someone the rules of poker very quickly and the way it is televised has immediate and easy to understand drama on every hand.
In chess, it's very hard to understand or follow the game for a beginner. In fact, the stronger a player is, the more entertainment you get from watching the top level games. But to a weak player , watching Magnus vs Nepo is completely cryptic without commentary. It's like watching a game show in a foreign language. Conversely, series like "Guess the Elo" by Gotham Chess are pretty popular, because there are 20 blunders in every game and they are easy to understand.
That's why top level chess has very little money for top professionals. It's not watchable.
Wow, I didn't realize that professionals earned so little! Is chess becoming a dyeing income? Why is this sport not very well appreciated? It is an art, and some take their whole lives to learn it!!! WHY does no one see this?!
@LILYJOHNSON said in #6:
> Wow, I didn't realize that professionals earned so little! Is chess becoming a dyeing income? Why is this sport not very well appreciated? It is an art, and some take their whole lives to learn it!!! WHY does no one see this?!
Unfortunately, none of this translates to making it appealing to the masses. I love chess, but at the end of the day it is a board game. It will never have the mainstream appeal of a sport like football, boxing, or MMA.
It would be a crying shame if OTB competitive chess disappeared, but I really do see online chess becoming the primary venue for competitive chess in the future.
> Wow, I didn't realize that professionals earned so little! Is chess becoming a dyeing income? Why is this sport not very well appreciated? It is an art, and some take their whole lives to learn it!!! WHY does no one see this?!
Unfortunately, none of this translates to making it appealing to the masses. I love chess, but at the end of the day it is a board game. It will never have the mainstream appeal of a sport like football, boxing, or MMA.
It would be a crying shame if OTB competitive chess disappeared, but I really do see online chess becoming the primary venue for competitive chess in the future.
Most people study something that helps them earn an income. Titled chess players studied what they liked. You become great at chess by studying boring chess things. That's acceptable as it's still chess. But to earn money you have to study boring boring things. That's too much to be asked for.
Tragic.....The prize fund should have been 5-10 times of what it was.....at least at such a high level where 2600+ grandmasters such as yourself play.
Playing strong chess should make tournaments profitable for chess players. Indeed travelling so far and playing solid chess should not result in a net loss for you.
This topic is now closed.