Some of my friends who are into chess say that having a rating from 1600 to 1800 means your a semi-pro at chess is that even true?

No.

Nope...well thats hard to say. You could call yourself a professional chess player at any rating. You would simply be a very poor professional chess player.

not at all

Well you can win money at any level in chess, as long as you play in the appropriate class. So if the definition of a professional is somebody who does something for money, I guess any tournament chess player can be considered a professional...technically.

I'd consider semi-pro something closer to 2000+ rating, or even NM level.

2000 but not nm

I'm playing in the Frome Congress in May. It's a qualifying event for the British Championship, and will be attended by IMs, NMs and GMs. Top prize? £120. Most titled players struggle to be ‘Pro’.

Your friends must be joking.

GMs are 2500+. Many GMs can't make enough money from playing chess to be pro, but let's say they can, and 2500+ is pro.

Then surely a semi-pro is someone who makes enough money from playing chess to get some real part of his income from playing chess. I think that below 2300, that just isn't realistic. 2300 players can trawl all the small local tournaments and get a few hundred dollars a month. That's barrel-scraping semi-pro.

Another way to look at the nonsense answer you were given...if a sem-pro is 1600-1800, does that therefore mean anyone rated over 1800 is a professional?

Tell your friend to give you a break.  He's not "into chess".  He just thinks he is.

lol

Maybe we're all missing a trick here... To be pro, you need to make money. What to do? I rekon I'm going to travel to schools and charge the kids their lunch money for teaching them the rules. All I have to do is teach two million kids and i'll never have to work again.

No. 1600-1799 just means you're an above-average tournament player. See:

http://www.jaderiver.com/chess/ratings.html#TITLES

• National Class B (USCF 1600-1799)

           Above average tournament player.