Making a fun and money off the chess hobby.

Making a fun and money off the chess hobby.

In USA,  I would probably say, that it is not a practical approach to rely on the chess Prizes, as there are only a few big enough tourneys per year, and your winning money will, at the best, just cover up some tourneys, not all of them.

The travel expenses, the feeding, the hotels, and the playing fees will eat you alive, time by time.

And the tourneys are too short, so it will be a few sharing of the prize place every time, and the prize money will split...

In my first 7 years at America I plays more than 40 tourneys, and won the prize places more than a half time, and after that, I gave up the active playing awhile, as it is not a good business here, like that.

In Europe, it is really good possibility to expect some fun and cash for the fun, as you can just a travel all year around on the short distances, and every country run many tourneys, for your range.

So, if you are good at chess, you can do a good living out of that hobby, in the Europe.

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PHOTO by Grigoriy Burtayev@ AWARDCHESS

AWARDCHESS on play, on the right side of the photo.

smilling AWARDCHESS, with chess friends, on the left side...

Quality thread, would read again.

 In America we had a half dozen really big tourneys per one year only.

So it is have no sense to travel among Los Angeles Open, Las Vegas /twice/, Philadelfia, Chicago, and it is all over, actually...

But in Europe you have at least dozen tourneys per year at every country here, so you have plenty of choices, and all of them more affordable...

I played tournament chess in Europe for more than 15 years and found there are pluses and minuses to US chess . Overall I enjoyed European chess more . 

Lived in Lisbon and played most of my chess in Portugal and Spain , with a few trips to Germany , Italy , France , England and Austria. 

Reb, what are the typical expences at Europe for chess playing?

Travel are not included, as it is a different for all players, but the Cost of the playing fees? hotel? feeding?

And what are the typical an Awards for the players, for the 1,2,3 places, at their categories?

Its pretty damn expensive actually in my country. We are the poorest from all europe, but cost for tourney fees, travel, hotels is not low. For example i ask a friend from Bangledash (Asia) how must cost fide rated tournament and he said abour 5-6$... Here a good tournament with good equipment and  cash will cost at least 15-35 euro - but you receive like 250-550 euro average salary from your job every month.. how the hell you can affort to spent that much money. plus hotel fees, food, car fuel etc... once every month or two ?!

 want to ask how much money players spent on chess compared on how much income they have every month.. chess tournaments are so expensive and exhousting and time consuming..

The only alternative i see is first you get really good at chess 1800-2200 fide Elo and try giving paid lessons to local beginners/kids to get some cash back..

And there is another big problem in America, for players who play chess. The Tourneys are typically too short, 6-7 rounds only, so even as you are already one of the winners, there are many shares, and so the Prize money reward is greatly reduced to non-profitable fun  on it...

You have to be a sole chess top dog player in your category winners list, to makes it fun and nice...

Yeah, but that encourage players to play agressive/decisive games for maximum points. So no free draws. But even after 6 wins 1 draw you can be way down in standings..My opinion.

Damn. What if I don't have cars or money?

For experts I think the best try is probably coaching.

That's probably for the worst.

Only a few chess patzers, like GM Nakamura, can makes some money in America...

Erik donate them some $$$ just for fun coming to chess.com...