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The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!
Q1: Why does Russia have 5 teams in the Open section?
A1: It is strange, actually. In Russia the first two teams are labeled as Russian, other three are known as "local". In fact, the team composition is strange: not entirely, local, junior or strong enough. In my opinion, Russia should have avoided this situation by having only 2 or 3 teams (as the organizers normally do). On the other hand, it's a chance for some more players to enjoy the Olympiad (even if they don't compete for the medals), why not?
Q2: What has been the greatest upset so far?
A2: There have been many sensations, but who could expect both Russia-1 and Russia-2 to lose in the 5th round of the Open section? That must be it.
Q3: Are you satisfied with your team's and your own performances at the Olympiad?
A3: Chess players make judgements about the results only after a tournament is over.
Q4: Is chess more of a logical or intuitive game?
A4: It depends on the player. Some rely purely on logic and principles, others just *see* the moves. Personally I am more of an intuitive player.
Q5: After reading your article about making money in chess, I'd like to know what your
thoughts are concerning scandals in chess (such as Zurich 1953) and to what extent
scandals have damaged the reputation of the "noble game" in the eyes of potential
(financial) backers.
A5: Chess is indeed a very noble and intelligent game, you don't hear about scandals there that often. That's why sometimes media produces cheap sensations like "chess player (sic!) X did Y", and at the end of the article one learns that the "chess player" is someone rated in the 1200-2000 range. Also, even if some tension between top players occurs, it is rarely visible. For example, you mention Zurich 1953. Do you think many people have at least some notion about what happened there? My guess is no.
Q6: When did you get your first rating, what was it?
A6: In 1999, it was FIDE 2159. At that time rated tournaments weren't as widespread as nowadays...
Q7: Is it hard to become a titled player?
A7: Depends on the title. While in the professional community only GM/WGM and IM/WIM are considered to be "real" titles, there are also semi-professional ones like FM/WFM and amateur ones - CM/WCM. The top two titles are rather hard to achieve and require many years of persistent work, while the lower ones can be obtained relatively quickly.
Few people managed to predict the outcome of today's matches as the upsets in the open section were huge, including the main three favorites. See for yourself:
Baadur Jobava (2710, Georgia) managed to defeat the seemingly invincible Magnus Carlsen (2825, Norway)
Source: http://ugra-chess.com
A few critical matches have been played in round 4 (including Russia-1 vs USA, Hungary vs China and Russia-2 vs India in the men's section and Russia-1 vs Georgia in the women's section). Here are the main resuts (upsets in italic):
While a few tough matches have been played on day 3, most of the favorites won convincingly. Round 4 should be more unpredictable.
Still, a few unexpected results took place.
People often ask me whether they will be able to become a grandmaster. Another question that derives from it is: How much will I be making? Young guys are especially pragmatic, so for many of them the choice between getting a job in the office and becoming a chess pro is quite acute.
First of all, lets classify the main legal means of earning money in chess:
1) Prize money. By far the most obvious one. The winner of the world championship typically gets $1-2 mln. (1,300,000 euros for Anand in 2010). By winning a top event (e.g. Linares) one gets something like 100,000 euros. Anything above $50k usually refers to a prestigious round robin. Top open events normally have a first prize of about $20k (one needs to perform way above 2700 to win them). A typical event won by a 2500+ GM has a first prize of below $5k. Of course, there are exceptions (like the U-something tournaments that are quite popular in the US). However, this is very uncommon in other countries.
2) Playing for clubs. Probably the main income of pre-elite grandmasters who are paid $5-20k for competing for a certain club.
3) Appearance fees works for top pros who are paid to show up at a certain event, thus boosting its prestige. A more modest and closely related term is conditions usually coverage of hotel/travelling expenses, a small fee (few hundred bucks) at best.
4) Scholarships and stipends. Bright chess-playing students may get some special burses. Members of national teams also often have a special wage. However, even in Russia the official member of the Russian Olympic teams salary has been symbolic up to this point (lets hope the situation is going to become better in the future). In many other countries they dont have any special privileges at all.
5) Sponsorships to obtain those you basically have to prove that you either are already an established pro with a strong brand (and, preferably, good looks), or are highly likely to become one. Then some companies may be willing to invest in being associated with you and ask for your endorsement.
6) Coaching not connected with being a professional player, but also quite popular. On the Internet IMs and GMs charge about $20-50 per hour, stars request more (up to $100 and even more). Of course, there are exceptions, i.e. crazy IMs from poor countries willing to work for food, or lucky guys who have found a customer willing to make them a millionaire.
7) Being a chess second assisting eminent players at their home lab. Playing sparring matches, preparing novelties, pinpointing opponents weaknesses.
8) Performances simuls, exhibition matches and other events of this type.
9) Literature writing books & columns.
10) Organizational work being an arbiter, tournament director, etc.
11) Selling chess merchandise that was especially popular in the post-Soviet world when people would be travelling around the world with heavy bags of rare chess books and equipment and selling it at the events where they played. Nowadays this looks less dramatic, but still works.
12) Hustling some people make money by beating other guys in blitz or bullet. You can see a lot of chess hustlers at parks or at chess clubs.
Now (without disclosing any personal information of my chess friends) lets quickly estimate what level one should have in chess to earn a certain amount. We are talking about the average player of each level. For example, one 2700+ GM may participate in 20 events per year, while the other only in 5. We will be considering the median. The same holds for other means of earning.
$10 mln/year no one
Over $1 mln/year top-3 in the world
Over $200k top-10
Over $100k top-50
Players close to the bottom of the top-100 are very unlikely to earn over $100k, for most the figure would be about $50-70k.
The point of this article is to suggest new ideas of how to earn in chess to people who are already involved in it professionally of semi-professionally, and to address the question how much do chess players make? Each person has his/her own idea of what enough is, so for someone $100k/year sounds like a lot of money, while others would scoff at the notion of not being able to earn $10 mln/year by playing chess. Also, no matter whether one considers himself to be a pro or not, it doesnt deprive anyone of the chance to enjoy chess!
Now, before someone accuses me of talking about general things without offering chess food for thought (I dont care how much they earn, teach me something about chess itself), lets go over one of my latest games from the Russia-China match:
