chess for a living.

Bisguier is at his 2200 USCF floor.

His FIDE rating is also on 2200 . I believe he's in his 80s ? 

Yup. Former US champ and very talented.

Reshevsky, on the other hand, retained his strength very well. Probably 300 points stronger at 80.

If betting is allowed, there would be game fixing. It's much easier to fix chess games when the parties involved is only 2 person. Even without betting, there is already allegations of pre-arranged games as Fischer accused. 

I slightly knew the late, Ken Smith, of Smith Morra Gambit fame and even played him in the preliminary round of the very first United States Corespondence Chess Championship.  He was quite a character.

He also played high stakes poker and one time won $100,000 in a tournament. [that was big money at the time]  He more or less made a living from chess and poker.

I knew the late Hugh Myers better. He used to live in Decatur Illinois and we would play many games of chess.  Hugh declared right out of college that he wanted to the a professional chess player. He wrote some books and had small magazine devoted to his unusual openings but he also first worked for Social Security and later he was living off his chess which meant, in truth, he was very poor.

Both of these guys were "characters" and both were of the master level but not near the grandmaster level.  RIP

I like this topic.  Chess as a mass market spectator sport is a hard sell because your ave person can't grasp a lot of what is happening.  For the most part, most other popular sports are simple to grasp; put something, ball, puck, etc.; somewhere, goal, basket, hole.  With these types of sports, people can see progress being made.

Chess is a slow process and not convenient for the ave attention span, but I would love to see someone come along and be the rockstar of chess to bring it more exposure.  

chess games go slowly so they usually don't have much excitement. That is why it isn't as popular.

i would think that if chess' popularity level went up, people would more likely be able to making a living out it.

?

Chess needs someone to appeal to the masses. Just like how Tiger Woods made golf fun to watch and got a whole slew of people to follow that sport. Chess needs someone to capture the "non" chess players imagination and pull them into the sport. Also if there was a media outlet that televised the games then that would be a huge breakthru. 

If this game can be marketed the right way as mentioned above. Then you will have a chance of not only the super GM's making a living off of chess, but the other titled players as well. It's the trickle down effect. 

But would a media outlet most likely do chess games.