For most, the figure hovers around $50-70k.Īnd without any atom of surprise, many of these players have employed several alternatives to earn extra income. Players close to the bottom of the top 100 are very unlikely to earn over $100k. 10 Ways Chess Players Earn Their Income (And You Can Too) You can also try to search for local chess tournaments around your location, or participate in yearly tournaments hosted by your national chess federation. The #1 chess platform in the world sometimes hosts online tournaments with mouth watering cash prizes.

Several online chess platforms exist where players may generate income by participating in tournaments and winning cash prizes.Ī good example of such platform is chess dot com. You can either make money playing chess online or by playing over the board physically with an opponent. There are two primary ways you can make money playing chess: The cash prizes for competitive chess tournaments usually overshadow the earnings from other tournaments.ĭoes that mean that you have no hope of earning from your beloved game? No, not at all. Unfortunately, most of the wealth in chess is only concentrated at the top.

Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in 2021 won Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin in the final match of the same FIDE World Cup and ended up with a similar prize fund of $110,000 while Karjakin got $80,000. Prag on the other hand got $80,000 for his impressive second-place position. For more regular tournaments, the first prize usually ranges from $50k to $200k.įor example, in August 2023, Magnus Carlsen defeated his young grandmaster opponent, 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa to claim $110,000 as the winner of the FIDE world cup. The World Chess Championship has the highest prize fund in the world (2 million euros as recorded in 20).

Play online chess to earn money