Chess for earning

this is actually a very interesting discussion. I stick with my original advice though.

In chess only the VERY top players can make an actual living from playing the game. This is different to football (soccer) where, in my country (UK) even lower league players can make a pretty decent living from playing .

well many members here are assuming that i am not willing to follow or listen to posters advice ,which is completely wrong. I am glad for all members to give me advice and doing my best to take right decision.

Good luck with the job and with chess. With commitment and some talent you can make Fide Master (when from there your chance of making International Master increases tenfold!!)

It's a wise choice, we all wish we could live on doing solely the things we love (I wished I could be a pornstar, but when my schlong never became the size of an exhaust pipe I realised that dream where better left a dream). Chess, I wish I could, but I started to late, and even if I had started in the right age, there is hardly any guarantee that I would have had the gift to make it. But living of chess? I would have loved it.

What does it take to be a top player?

About 10,000 hours of serious study, which averages out to 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 10 years. One hour per day will make you a talented amateur, 2 will make you a pro, and three will make you a top level pro.

These are not numbers I am pulling out of the air but rather numbers that have been consistently found for most human endeavors. Malcom Gladwells latest book Outliers (while flawed in many ways) gives a good overview of this exact topic. I recommend it to any one who wishes to excel.

All this work will not make you the best in the world but it will place you within the top 100. The problem with chess is that even being within the top 1000 is not strong enough to make a living. At the top 100 you then can make a living off of just chess but not a particularly good living. Searching for Bobby Fisher gives a nice overview of what its like being a serious chess player and how little money and glory there is in professional chess.

I don't know if this is the record, but Jusefs Petkēvičs, a Latvian player born in 1940 (in Riga, of course) earned his IM in 1980 and his GM in 2002, at age 62. His current rating is 2407, down from a seeming high of 2459 in 2000.

We also have Larry Kaufman of Rybka who got his title at the age of 61 in 2008, due his victory at the world senior championship. But these shouldn't give any hope to the original poster, he doesn't have the slightest chance. Larry Kaufman's first non-provisional rating was already over 2100, for example.

  haha.

 I don"t think is will be wasted, he could alway look back  and be proud of himself by saying that he had tried it and gave it his best.  

So, more than 2 months since this was 1st posted how are you getting on? I presume of course you've quit your job and are now studying chess for 8+ hours a day. If not you can give up on becoming a GM (well you almost certainly should no matter how hard you work anyway).

In the 2 months since he posted this, he went from below 1400 to almost 1900?

Heck, I´m impressed, maybe he does have a chance of becoming a master.

i have not quit my job yet, will do in may and give serious effort till November. You think 8+ hrs is enough? I don't think anything less than 12+ will be enough for me. I had showdown with my parents and they have given me time till November to prove my self.  How will i prove myself ? I think, very good and consistent performance in rated tournaments, might convince them. 

Anyway, up till now, i am pretty much happy with my progress. I am also playing against personalities in chessmaster. In chess master i just beat 2025 player( Drawn trice, lost 0) and have drawn twice with 2300 player( Also lost twice). I know chessmaster rating can't be compared with human players with same rating, but as a beginner my performance look good. 

As far as 1900 rating here, it can be achieved easily. People make lot of blunders and i have own many games due to timeout by my opponent. 

I will update this thread again with some positive news.

Well good luck to you then if you truly are willing to work at it for over 12 hours a day.

hmm...i have tried 12+ hrs without much problem. Though 12+ hrs continuously everyday might be different matter. But if i am expecting to become very good player then i have to work hard, No choice!!

have you been going to the otb tournament lately ?

i would love to be a professional chess player to. However it just isn't feasible for the majority of us. However, I  do respect you for going up that much that quickly

I think you have to separate the two issues. First, whether you can earn enough money from chess. Second, whether you can become a GM or not.

If you're in accounting, isn't it easy to calculate how much money you can get from chess? No? Well, what you need to know is that a 24-year-old IM here needs 10 years to get to where he is. Where do you get the time from? If you are a professional, you will not have that time. But if you can set your timeline, then ask your local chessfriends, how many tournaments in a month, how big is the prize. From lower level tournaments to those in neighbours' countries (to accommodate your growth).

If you think you are smart and well educated, it's not a plus but a drawback. Because the more educated you are, the easier you get money from other fields than from chess.

If you love chess (or love something that you can have from playing chess), you will have to sacrifice your financial income. And you're not in America so you will really have to sacrifice. The trick is how you can get financial support from someone or somewhere else, to have time to study and play. Be a goverment employee (with plenty of free time), married to a career woman (to help support the family).

If you want to become a GM, I do too. And I'm way older than you are. So, you might be at better position than I am. At your age and skill (and I would assume you have an IQ of at least 125), if you really have the passion and willing to sacrifice (and can find a way to get away from financial issue) I strongly believe you can be a GM and can make a living from chess. But don't be wrong, the money will not come from tournament prizes but from somewhere else. Because the problem with even the most successfull chess players (and athletes) are they will eventually retire from playing in tournaments and will have to face a hard living.

  Are you for real?

Get with the program Afaf. Becoming a GM's easy nowadays, everyone's trying for it. 

Oooh.  I want in on this.  Where do I sign?