Top Chess Player Incomes

[Wayne Komer]

Top Chess Player Incomes

After a tournament, especially one with tie-breaks, it is often difficult to find how much each player has won. All the publicity comes before the tournament and virtually none after.

There are also appearance fees and endorsement incomes.

Not counted would be income from non-chess sources such as poker, business ventures nor non-tournament earnings such as simultaneous exhibitions, coaching, scholarships and book authorship.

Estimates for the prize money incomes for 2013 have been made by Peter Zhdanov at the ChessBase site:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-c...uess-who-leads

2012

1. Vishy Anand $2,000,000

2. Boris Gelfand $1,100,000

3. Magnus Carlsen $480,000

4. Levon Aronian $330,000

5. Sergey Karjakin $300,000

6. Fabiano Caruana $290,000

7. Hikaru Nakamura $275,000

8. Vladimir Kramnik $210,000

9. Alexander Grischuk $185,000

10. Dmitry Andreikin $150,000

2013

1. Magnus Carlsen $2,200,000

2. Vishy Anand $1,500,000

3. Fabiano Caruana $640,000

4. Vladimir Kramnik $600,000

5. Levon Aronian $500,000

6. Sergey Karjakin $450,000

7. Hikaru Nakamura $440,000

8. Boris Gelfand $415,000

9. Veselin Topalov $390,000

10. Peter Svidler $375,000
_________

Hou Yifan $265,000

[Hans Jung]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Interesting comparison from 2012 to 2013, 4 thru 10 have doubled or tripled their income, only exception is Boris Gelfand - although he was handsomely paid for competing in World Championship.

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

And I suppose a list of the top Canadians chess incomes would be $3,000 in tournament winnings (/appearance fees?) minus more in expenses, and perhaps over $40,000 for being school and on-line chess teachers, tournament TDs. In the past, some would have had income for writing columns and books, and selling equipment.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Chuckle, chuckle, I think you got it right. Completely different chess scene in Europe and points East.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

November 13, 2015

World Champion

The Norwegian journalist Tarjei J. Svensen has written recently of Magnus Carlsen’s chess earnings.

The sums are a bit confusing because Norwegian kroner, euros and American dollars are intermixed and sometimes you are not quite sure where you are. I have converted all money sums into United States Dollars (USD).

The latest article is at:

http://www.sjakkbloggen.no/2015/11/1...or-norge-i-em/

In 2014, his company, Magnuschess, was worth just over 10 million USD. Magnus owns 85 percent of Magnuschess, while his father Henry has the remaining 15 percent. His father follows Magnus around the world as a kind of mixture of boss and errand boy - with responsibility for everything from breakfast to wake up service and attending to practical details, contact with the media and representation.

Among the costs of the company, for example, are training camps, coach Peter Heine Nielsen and helpers ("sekundantene"), who are contracted in connection with the World Cup matches.

Magnuschess also holds a large number of shares in the app Play Magnus, which has been a huge success.

Magnus recently bought a three-storey detached house in Holmenkollen for 19.5 million kroner (2,240,000 USD).

When he beat Vishi Anand in 2013, he received more than 1 million USD.

During the World Cup in the lightning and quick chess in Berlin recently secured himself a total of 52,800 USD for first (rapid) and sixth (blitz) places. That amount still pales in comparison to what the 24-year-old can collect with first place in the London Chess Classic in December. He will earn close to 150,000 USD, if he also goes all the way to the top in Grand Chess Tour standings.

In last tournament of this year, the Qatar Masters Open, First Prize is a lowly 27,000 USD, but Carlsen gets a six-figure sum as an appearance fee, as well as all his expenses covered.

A calculation shows that Carlsen can earn 482,900 USD in 2015 in total prize money and fees. This does not include lucrative sponsorship agreements or income from PlayMagnus.

[Gordon Gooding]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Hi there

Forgive my ignorance, but this thing with appearance fees, especially significantly larger than the prize money, is this common in chess and in sports in general?

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

November 15, 2015

My guess is that the Qatar people were willing to pay almost anything to get Carlsen to participate in their Open for its advertising value and success.

In chess, I think an appearance fee might be usual in the case of the top grandmasters.

This from “The Aronian Interview” talking about Grand Prix 2012:

“Frankly speaking, I found it quite insulting to compete in a tournament with the first prize half as large as my participation fee at almost any other tournament that time.”

The first prize was 25,000 euro or about 30,000 USD in 2012.

http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/show...9308#post99308
_______

Peter Zhdanov in 2013 in Chessbase wrote about this:

Most top tournaments conceal the amount of the prize money and the appearance fees. They prefer to negotiate the conditions personally with each player without informing the public about the details, thus saving money and avoiding paying taxes. While common sense tells us that the chess community should be evolving towards financial transparency and legal payments, it is clear that the organizers and many of the players themselves will be reluctant to cooperate.

Of course, there are exceptions, but the average figure of the first prize at a super tournament is $50,000-$100,000. The appearance fees for players rated 2700+ are usually in the $10,000-$20,000 range. The very top stars can negotiate even better rates.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/who-are...sh-kings-2012-

For other sports, this article:

How to Get the Best Bang for Your Celebrity Buck

22 October 2014

When you really start digging into your list of possible celebrities, you’ll find that athletes and celebrities require a wide range of appearance fees, from the reasonable to the extreme. A quick Internet search yields some interesting examples:

$5,000 to $10,000

Grant Fuhr, former NHL all-star

$10,000 to $20,000

AC Green ex-NBA player
Amanda Beard, Olympic swimmer and model

$30,000 to $50,000

Curt Schilling former all-star MLB pitcher

$200,000 and up

Lance Armstrong, cyclist

http://www.prosportsmvp.com/tag/appearance-fees/

So, if it is a choice between having Levon Aronian or Lance Armstrong attend your son's birthday party, Levon's appearance fee will be the more reasonable of the two!

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

October 13, 2016

A story in Dagens Naeringsliv today says that Magnus Carlsen’s net income went from about 1 million Norwegian kroner in 2014 to 13.6 million in 2015, whereas his net worth went down from 19.3 million to 15.5 million. He paid 3.9 million in taxes.

A million NOK is worth 122, 662 US$. His 2015 income was therefore about US$ 1.7 million (1.5 million euros).

http://www.dn.no/nyheter/finans/2016...ntekten-i-fjor

Dagens Naeringsliv = Today’s Business

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

February 3, 2017

Titled players do not often talk about what appearance fees they get. One exception is Danny Gormally on the GingerGM site:

http://www.gingergm.com/blog/is-ches...gly-elite-game

Is chess becoming an increasingly elite game?

GM Danny Gormally

21 December, 2016

Unfortunately I was unable to play in the London Chess Classic this year. That’s because even though the grandmasters were offered £1250 to play in the FIDE open, you don’t get this money until after the event.

The way the fee structure is set up is that the £1250 is there as a guarantee against your prize. So therefore if you end up winning say £800 in the FIDE open, you don’t win anymore than the £1250 in any case. And as I didn’t have the money to afford to pay for a hotel in London for ten days, I had to withdraw.

When I told them I was pulling out you’d think they might have said “Oh, sorry to hear that, is there anyway we can help with your costs up front?” I know a lot of players are ok in this respect: some of them stay with someone for free, or have built up a formidable rota of sugar daddies who will bankroll their every event. Sadly I don’t have this option and are now in the situation where I’m even struggling to play chess tournaments.

You’re probably thinking “Well, surely if you’re a grandmaster you should be ok?” The problem is I have very little in the way of earnings, no money coming in and have not got to the stage where I’m thinking “Should I do something else with my life?” Maybe get some kind of crap job like working down the Co-op or in some sort of factory, something like that, because it seems pointless playing chess when you can’t even afford to get to tournaments.

I am playing Hastings which is just around the corner, I get accommodation plus a little bit of money for that which makes it easier, although still doesn’t completely cover the cost of travel plus having to feed yourself for ten days. If I fail to win a prize, a very likely outcome then the likelihood is I’ll go away with a decent loss, so there you see the difficulty of playing chess for a living.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

May 5, 2017

There is an article by Alex Knapp in Forbes Magazine entitled:

Making A Living In Chess Is Tough – But The Internet Is Making It Easier

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkna.../#6bccf59d4850

(you may have to paste this into your browser window)

It starts off with a video of Rex Sinquefield saying, "Our top ten or twenty players in the world don't have to do anything but play chess. They can earn a very good living. I mean, I'm talking a living of $250,000 a year and up."

Of course, being at the top of the game is easier said than done. "I think chess is a tough career," said International Master and chess pro Nazí Paikidze. "It is very competitive."

If getting into making a living playing the game of kings is something you're interested in, here's some good news - it's actually an easier career than it was a few decades ago.

Grandmaster Ben Finegold told me this story about the past: "So many times I would play in the last round [of a tournament], and if I won I could eat. And if I lost, I had to drive home for three or four hours and figure out how to pay the rent."

Even today, living on the tournament circuit is pretty competitive. Prize pools like that of the U. S. Chess Championship are definitely on the high end, which means you need to perform consistently to be assured of an income.

"You have to be at the top of your field to make a living," said Paikidze.

Though if you are at the top, some interesting opportunities are emerging. There's the old chess standbys of tournaments, simultaneous exhibitions, and that sort of thing. But there's also some growing interest from companies outside of chess who are enlisting chess players for endorsements. Red Bull, for example, sponsors Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.

That's helpful, says Grandmaster (and Under 30 alumni) Fabiano Caruana, because "A lot of chess is training, and a lot of that takes money. The training is just constant."

Which means that if you're looking for a career in the game and you can't perform at the top levels, you face a crossroads in your career. As Finegold notes, "You have to decide: are you going to make the main part of your living playing in tournaments, or by writing and teaching and doing videos and stuff?"

"Has the internet opened up opportunities? Definitely," said Finegold. "In more ways than one. Not only can you get better at chess by using the internet, you can also make money teaching and making videos and doing commentary. It's been a really great boon for chess."
________

The article also quotes Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and Jennifer Shahade about commentating and organizing.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Top Chess Player Incomes

Top Chess Player Incomes

May 17, 2017

Sponsors

The top players often have a host of sponsors. In return they do some PR work for the sponsor and wear their logo.

For example, Magnus Carlsen has Nordic Semiconductor, the law firm Simonsen, Arctic Securities, the newspaper VG and Parallels.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/08/...more-sponsors/

Hikaru Nakamura has the energy drink Red Bull as a sponsor. Fabiano Caruana has two niche sponsors: the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis and the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. He has their patches on the baggy jacket he wears to matches and other public events.

There was recently a story in chessdom about Sergey Karjakin:

http://www.chessdom.com/sergey-karja...other-sponsor/

Sergey Karjakin signs another sponsor

May 10, 2017

World Championship challenger Sergey Karjakin has signed his seventh sponsorship contract, becoming the ambassador of the brand BC “Fonbet”. Manager Kyrillos Zangalis announced on facebook that another three large corporations are in negotiations with Karjakin team. Zangalis added that nobody could have imagined such success in 2011 when he first talked with Karjakin about the “project Universe”.

Recently, Karjakin also became the face of the largest Russian private bank “Otkritie”. Karjakin joked on twitter – “They said it will be fun. And then they sent 700kg of chess sets for autographs!”

[Wayne Komer]

Top Chess Player Incomes

June 25, 2018

Tarjei J. Svensen (tweet) - Norwegian business paper @DN_no reporting Carlsen's company Magnuschess made a record result in 2017, a profit of NOK 11,4 million (€1,2M). Since 2007 his profit is €6,8M

https://www.dn.no/nyheter/2018/06/25...magnus-carlsen

Excerpts:

Magnus Carlsen (27) has just prepared fresh accounts for his private company Magnus Chess

Magnus Carlsen owns 85 percent of the company, while his father Henrik Carlsen owns the rest.

Revenues in Magnus Chess come mainly from regular sponsors and other advertising campaigns and cash prizes from chess tournaments.

Carlsen has several regular sponsors - including brokerage firm Arctic Securities, VG, law firm Simonsen Vogt Wiig and Nordic Semiconductor.

Carlsen has been in several advertising campaigns for big brands. In 2011 fronted his clothing brand G-Stars collection with actress Liv Tyler. He did so well in 2014, when along with actress Lily Cole. Carlsen has also recorded commercials for Isklar and Felleskjöpet and Altibox.


Magnus Carlsen also established a company Play Magnus which has collaborated with the Norwegian learning games-founder of the popular Dragonbox games. Carlsen is through Magnus Chess a majority owner of Play Magnus with 46 percent of the shares.

The company developed a chess game for kids on mobile phones and tablets which is built around how the chess ace learned to play as a boy.