The worst form of self torture: Becoming a chess pro!

If some young person has a passion for chess and pursues it, he or she will have a much better life living in the midst of an all-consuming interest than the millions of careerists who spend their lives doing something they find tedious just to get enough money to leave a substantial amount to their usually ungrateful heirs.  Life is the sum total of what you do everyday, not how much money you make.

It sounds all beautiful in paper but real life is not like that. 

How can you have a ¨much better life¨ when you are always in bankruptcy, when you do not have a social life, when you learned absolutely nothing in life aside of chess, when everybody considers you a weirdo, when you are always stressed? What kind of life is that? 

And plus, it is impossible to absolutely love your profession every single day. Even the biggest chess fan will eventually get a bit tired or fed up of it. 

So it is not like the passionate chess player will be happy all the time living in a wonderful fantasy world where real life priorities do not exist. 

And last, money is not at all the most important thing in life, however I highly doubt that living in poverty is something cool. 

Pasha, you make some reasonable points.  It's disappointing and painful to consider, but reality and truth is like that at times.  

I love chess but would never encourage anyone to be a chess pro. Chess is one of the best hobby but one of the worst profession. It pays too little and too much work and time.

Exactly my point

Chess will never be a spectator sport, unfortunately.  So the money will remain limited except for the Super GMs.

Like the ballet, you (probably) need rich family to pursue that dream.

Both Ken Rogoff and John Nunn had alternate professions to pursue.  Most Masters don't have that luxury.

Chess is too complex to understand for casual people. Even if they make Blitz matches and show them on TV most people won't understand at all why this or that move have been played. 

Watching 2 guys sitting quietly playing a board game and doing moves that are impossible to understand is not something that people are interested in. 

People like to watch action, people like to watch stuff that does not require hard thinking, people like entertainment. 

If you say that you play chess for a living most people will think that it is very weird and kinda lame, to say the least. 

Generally speaking, chess players don't care too much what non chess players think of them.  

I watched the commentary on the Fischer-Spassky games on PBS, and the explanation of what was happening on the board was not only clear but even dramatic, so from the example of that series, I would say that chess can be presented in a way that is entertaining to those not extremely committed to it.

The "chess pros" who are able to make a decent living from chess alone are definitely few.  But many have other skills, degrees, etc.

I longed to be a good musician - amateur or pro - but I got my graduate degree in Chemistry FIRST and studied serious music much later. I finally qualified to play Chopin on piano at the ACE Recital of the world-class Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in my 50's!  Along the way, I met two music teachers: one with a degree in electrical engineering to fall back on if music didn't work out.  The other got a business degree, found a job outside of music that offered a retirement pension after 20 years, then "retired" and used the steady income from the pension to allow him to become a full-time musician and music teacher.

Anyone getting into chess would be wise to have a similar backup plan!

Just as an aside, if I remember correctly, I read once that no record has been preserved of that commentary.

In any field, bottom of the pyramid work a lot for little pay. Thats the whole premise of socialism. How is chess any different from any other field? The pie is smaller in chess, so bottom of the pyramid get a very small piece of a small pie. Solution is to increase the pie by making chess popular as TV event by concentrating on blitz and rapid. When Chess earns more money, then individual GMs earn more money. When Chess is more popular, then individual GMs become celebrities.

The recent Fischer movie was a good spectator show for the public.

Le'ts face it, anyone rated 400 points above you makes plenty of moves you probably don't understand.  The public is in the same boat when it comes to GM Chess -- they don't have the foggiest idea what's happening over the board from move to move.

Why should they find chess interesting, compared to kicking a ball through a net and screaming GOAL !!  

You don´t need to test everything yourself to be able to have an opinion. 

What I wrote is not based on my own experience but it is neither something I am inventing. 

COMPETITION itself as I see is against the core pleasure we derive from chess. Name me another game two friends can spend a better time playing than it. Marketing of chess in a grand level, as some expect, will never be possible. Keeping the money aside for a bit, consider sir the emotions playing THAT move, which you invented on the spot . It's a money can't buy kinda thing! And what music is?

Fifa!

Worst form of self torture, becoming a chess pro???

I would defy our esteemed OP to name a better form of self torture, than becoming a chess pro!!!