Making money with chess

omg i got the best idea for making money with chess u should def try this out just start a new streaming career but like with a twist u know play chess blindfolded underwater while juggling flaming bowling pins the more absurd the better people will love it they cant resist watching u be famous and make tons of money easy peasy trust me

@Gravija said in #3:

If you are good at carpentry, you can make chess boards & pieces then sell them.

A friend owns a company that makes chess boards and wooden trophies.. For the tournament I organized in Machu Picchu in 2021 (1st Magistral Fischerandom) he made beautiful trophies representing the image of Ataw Wallpa (king in the ancient Andean civilization). His company, INCAISA, is very successful.

"... Many aspiring young chess players dream of one day becoming a grandmaster and a professional. ... But ... a profession must bring in at least a certain regular income even if one is not too demanding. ... The usual prize money in Open tournaments is meagre. ... The higher the prizes, the greater the competition. ... With a possibly not very high and irregular income for several decades the amount of money one can save for old age remains really modest. ... Anyone who wants to reach his maximum must concentrate totally on chess. That involves important compromises with or giving up on his education. ... it is a question of personal life planning and when deciding it is necessary to be fully conscious of the various possibilities, limitations and risks. ... a future professional must really love chess and ... be prepared to work very hard for it. ... It is all too frequent that a wrong evaluation is made of what a talented player can achieve. ... Most players have the potential for a certain level; once they have reached it they can only make further progress with a great effort. ... anyone who is unlikely to attain a high playing strength should on no account turn professional. ... Anyone who does not meet these top criteria can only try to earn his living with public appearances, chess publishing or activity as a trainer. But there is a lack of offers and these are not particularly well paid. For jobs which involve appearing in public, moreover, certain non-chess qualities are required. ... a relevant 'stage presence' and required sociability. ... All these jobs and existences, moreover, have hanging above them the sword of Damocles of general economic conditions. ... around [age] 40 chess players ... find that their performances are noticeably tailing off. ..." - from a 12 page chapter on becoming a chess professional in the book, Luther's Chess Reformation by GM Thomas Luther (2016)
https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/LuthersChessReformation-excerpt.pdf

In 1997 I started doing research on the relationship between chess and AI. As a result, I started giving lectures on this subject. Years later I created a website, in which I have written many articles, a Youtube channel and then my other social networks. About ten years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to write some articles on an English Grandmaster website. In parallel with these activities, I had already been working as a chess coach. With the appearance of Zoom in the middle of the last decade I began to form some study groups which in the beginning were small (5 to 10 students); I currently have between 50 and 100 students in each group. I currently do these tasks online and face to face.

@Leonardosoco said in #1:

While I'm far from being a professional at standard chess,I'm curious to know whether you can make decent money with it
-Assuming you are not titled,but have a high rating(+2500),if I offer chess lessons,will I get approached by a fair number of students?

What is "decent" money ? Do you want to drive in a Ferrari, or will a modest but solid bicycle fit you ? Do you perhaps need to support some other family members with your salary or will you be a "free" bird traveling the world with your back pack and have not many monthly costs ? Do you want a library of 5000 chess books at home (Like some chess players have) or is the Lichess website good enough for your chess luggage ? Money also depends on your country. Inflation and daily costs (food,drinks,rent or mortgage, taxes and so on) are often different per country.

Even if you are not a very good chess player, you can get chess teacher degrees. Either within your country (if there is some national chess teacher training setup. For example in the Netherlands there is) or become a FIDE chess trainer.
Whether you will be able to get enough students depends on all kind of factors.
Like for example :

• are you a good business person running your own company, or will you become decent at it ?
• are you in a suitable country for it or not, and are you willing to move ?
• are you able to make advertisement for yourself well or willing to learn ?

You can be a weak chess player, but a very good teacher for chess.
In the Netherlands Karel van Delft is a well-known chess teacher but not a very strong chess player (U1700).
He is giving chess lessons at several schools, but he is also a psychologist, so perhaps he makes money not just from chess.

There are a few ways you can make money of chess. To name some::

• Play, and make money from prize funds and starting money. Only a relative few people will make enough money that way to offset travel and lodging costs.

• Teach and/or coach. This could range from teaching a group of school children to coaching a promising young talent on its path to grandmaster. You don't have to have a high ranking to do this, but having a high ranking may make it easier to attract new students. Some money can be made of it, but I don't think there are many teachers/coaches who can make a living out of this.

• Write. Which could range from books to columns in newspapers to web site articles. But I don't get the impression this is going to be a big market. The number of new chess books appearing each year isn't very high, And they won't be printed in high number. You may struggle finding a publisher, specially if you aren't a (former) world champion publishing his/her "my best 100 games". As for news paper columns, chess columns seem to be disappearing. After all, who now a days is going to replay a game by hand when there are tons of websites where you can reply games with the click of the mouse?

• Stream. Create chess related content that people want to see. Put it on YouTube and make money from ads, or put it on an ad-free, subscription-paid platform. Alternatively, work for such a channel (producer, graphics designer, etc).

• Organize. Create a tournament. Charge people to participate, If it's a high level tournament, charge people to be spectators. Make money out of selling food, drinks and t-shirts. Get sponsors. If there is a place where a lot of grandmasters live near each other, you could organize bus tours to their houses.

• Rule. Because FIDE president. Take bribes.

And there are many chess-related other jobs. Quite a number of people were involved with the series "The Queens' Gambit", and getting paid for that. People make chess boards and chess clocks. There will be official photographers at high level events.

@new_player_123 said in #9:

Because streaming/VOD is about entertainment.

If your 2500 lacks this ability, but wants an increased viewership, then an easy way would be to give live chess courses to a bikini girl in a pool or something that way.
The guy/s are some of the greatest chess streamers ever, plus he/they are super dedicated, the answer every single question whether from subs or followers which is sad

I got another perfect moneymaker strategy for you using chess. Create a life size chessboard in your front yard, dress up as a knight, and charge people for the ultimate "Knight Ride" experience! As they sit on your back, you'll hop around the chessboard just like a knight would move in the game. Trust me, it's not only great exercise but also a surefire way to become a local sensation and make cash! Just remember to neigh convincingly for the authentic knight experience.

@kindaspongey said in #13:

"... Many aspiring young chess players dream of one day becoming a grandmaster and a professional. ... But ... a profession must bring in at least a certain regular income even if one is not too demanding. ... The usual prize money in Open tournaments is meagre. ... The higher the prizes, the greater the competition. ... With a possibly not very high and irregular income for several decades the amount of money one can save for old age remains really modest. ... Anyone who wants to reach his maximum must concentrate totally on chess. That involves important compromises with or giving up on his education. ... it is a question of personal life planning and when deciding it is necessary to be fully conscious of the various possibilities, limitations and risks. ... a future professional must really love chess and ... be prepared to work very hard for it. ... It is all too frequent that a wrong evaluation is made of what a talented player can achieve. ... Most players have the potential for a certain level; once they have reached it they can only make further progress with a great effort. ... anyone who is unlikely to attain a high playing strength should on no account turn professional. ... Anyone who does not meet these top criteria can only try to earn his living with public appearances, chess publishing or activity as a trainer. But there is a lack of offers and these are not particularly well paid. For jobs which involve appearing in public, moreover, certain non-chess qualities are required. ... a relevant 'stage presence' and required sociability. ... All these jobs and existences, moreover, have hanging above them the sword of Damocles of general economic conditions. ... around [age] 40 chess players ... find that their performances are noticeably tailing off. ..." - from a 12 page chapter on becoming a chess professional in the book, Luther's Chess Reformation by GM Thomas Luther (2016)
www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/LuthersChessReformation-excerpt.pdf

Are you still active on chess.com? Used to see you posting all the time, now not so much.

Chess is logic upon which logical decisions are made so, in a way, you could say when you engage logic schemas in your decision making process, be it at work or otherwise, you are using chess.