The Well: curtains 3/2/07

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How much does chess pay? Was it realistic for you to make a lifelong income playing chess? Where do all the chess pros go?

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It's not realistic for me to make a lifelong income PLAYING chess. I wasn't quite good enough nor do I was going to be good enough to make it worth my while.

It's definitely realistic to make a decent wage from teaching chess. This is what I did when I was first starting to play poker. It helped me early in my career when I wasn't yet ready to rely on poker as my sole source of income.

Not sure what you mean about where all the chess pros go. Most American pros end up doing something else because in America there are just so many oppurtunities to make a good living, and making one at chess is a real struggle. You have to be very very good to make a living from only playing the game. Almost every pro earns some or even most of their income from teaching chess.