What constitutes an amateur in chess?

vamsim7 · 2025-01-08T19:13:38-08:00

Recently I was rereading The Amateur's Mind by Silman, and in the book he refers to players with very high ratings such as 2100 and 2150 as "amateurs". This was in 1999 and he makes references to tournament play, so I assume that it's USCF rating. What I don't get is that 2150

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vamsim7

Feb 1, 2025

#21

Pawn3888 wrote:

While I don't think this is what was meant by that individual, it's my thought that a chess amateur is someone who plays chess but doesn't make $ from it.

Technically I'm not an amateur because I once made $5 from a chess tournament

NoemiS05

Feb 1, 2025

#22

Anyone who doesn't make a living from playing chess. If someone makes a significant part of their living from it, they are "semi-professional".