World Chess Has a Big Problem - article from Bloomberg

[Robert Pope]

Iran has not attacked another country since the 1700s, yet they're the first on many (who are under the spell of U.S MSM) people's list of "danger countries".

Not to turn this political, but didn't Iran invade Iraq back in the '80s? I think Iraq may have started it, but Iran was on the offensive for most of the war.

[BrendanJNorman]

Iran has not attacked another country since the 1700s, yet they're the first on many (who are under the spell of U.S MSM) people's list of "danger countries".

Not to turn this political, but didn't Iran invade Iraq back in the '80s? I think Iraq may have started it, but Iran was on the offensive for most of the war.

Yeah no interest in politics here, but I do like to discover the truth about what's going on outside of MSM.

Even if Iran was on the offensive, if Iraq started it, I wouldn't call that attacking another country (in the way I meant...as in, without provocation).

If I start a fight with a guys who's a black belt in karate and he immediately takes the offensive in the fight, it'd be silly to say that he attacked me.

Regardless, the 1980s was a long time ago...I can think of country's much more dangerous who have attacked others (without provocation) much more recently.

[BrendanJNorman]

How can you beat a living where you actually make good $$ in doing something that you love to do?

Why should everyone be able to do that? The cashiers in supermarkets probably don't think that pulling things over a scanner is a life-fulfilling activity.

But that's a choice they make.

In 2012 I got sick of running my biz in Sydney and moved to China, learnt some new skills, fused them with my passion for chess and now make a decent living with absolutely no pressure.

I'm sitting in Starbucks in Southern China right now, while friends in Sydney are sitting in offices listening to someone tell them what time to eat lunch or that their work wasn't up to expectations.

Anyone could do what I've done or whatever it is that makes them happy.

I once pondered the series of events that must have led a young girl to serving coffee at the Sydney airport cafe at 4am.

If she quit to chase her dreams, they'd fill the spot quickly too...

The machine of society will always run on time, no matter how many people (like myself) choose to live on the outer fringes.

The reality is that anybody can do what they enjoy and make a living from it, but most make the decision (conscious or unconscious) not to.

As Thorou said: "Most men live lives of quiet desperation"

[Uri Blass]

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016 ... mpionship/


Peter Leko's former coach once told me that only the top 20 can make a living solely from playing chess.

I think that the term make a living is not clear.
Can you translate it to money?

How much money do you need?

If the target is only to survive then it is dependent on many questions
for example
1)Do you have children that you need to support?
2)Do you rent an apartment or maybe you do not need to do it because you have your own apartment.
3)Where do you live?(if you live in a place that there are many chess tournaments then you do not need to go out of your country to play and earn money)

[BrendanJNorman]

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016 ... mpionship/


Peter Leko's former coach once told me that only the top 20 can make a living solely from playing chess.

I think that the term make a living is not clear.
Can you translate it to money?

How much money do you need?

If the target is only to survive then it is dependent on many questions
for example
1)Do you have children that you need to support?
2)Do you rent an apartment or maybe you do not need to do it because you have your own apartment.
3)Where do you live?(if you live in a place that there are many chess tournaments then you do not need to go out of your country to play and earn money)

Do you mean translate it to an amount of money?

Well this is going to be less clear than the term "make a living".

"Make a living" means to meet one's expenses comfortably, while quoting a number of say 30k a year is going to change the standard of living based on the individual's geographical location.

Playing the circuit in Asia or Eastern Europe will require much less than doing the same in North America, for example...hence the blanket phrase "make a living".

I think this term is widely used to mean "earn enough to meet one's expenses", right?

We can assume that all players do (or will) have essential expenses to cover in order to meet the basic needs outlined by Maslow.

My friend's quote referred to needing to be within the top 20 in order to meet these needs JUST by playing and living off of tournament winnings.

Hope that makes it clearer.

[Ozymandias]

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016 ... mpionship/


Peter Leko's former coach once told me that only the top 20 can make a living solely from playing chess.

I think that the term make a living is not clear.
Can you translate it to money?

How much money do you need?

If the target is only to survive then it is dependent on many questions
for example
1)Do you have children that you need to support?
2)Do you rent an apartment or maybe you do not need to do it because you have your own apartment.
3)Where do you live?(if you live in a place that there are many chess tournaments then you do not need to go out of your country to play and earn money)

You're absolutely right, that's why I chose the even more subjective term "decent living".

[BrendanJNorman]

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016 ... mpionship/


Peter Leko's former coach once told me that only the top 20 can make a living solely from playing chess.

I think that the term make a living is not clear.
Can you translate it to money?

How much money do you need?

If the target is only to survive then it is dependent on many questions
for example
1)Do you have children that you need to support?
2)Do you rent an apartment or maybe you do not need to do it because you have your own apartment.
3)Where do you live?(if you live in a place that there are many chess tournaments then you do not need to go out of your country to play and earn money)

You're absolutely right, that's why I chose the even more subjective term "decent living".

haha good call Juan.

Actually though...

If there are guys I know personally (and probably numerous who I don't know) who are as weak as 1700, yet making 50k+ USD (and many ridiculously more) due to having persistance and intelligent positioning (in the marketing sense), I don't see why an FM, IM or GM couldn't do even better by leveraging their credentials.

Most of the time its because they are specialists (the only skill they have is chess), so most of the time their life is managed by someone else, despite their genius in their chosen field.

I've seen the same from music artists too...

I know musicians who are so talented (and write such great, beautiful songs that bring people to tears upon hearing them) that they could easily (no B.S) take the world by storm...but again, that is their only skill - so in the ten years I've known them they've talked about "making it", but still just post songs on Facebook and get a trickle of feedback from ppl.

Look at it from an extreme level...

I've heard that Magnus Carlsen makes about 800k per year...

If he went independent, cherry picked his events, and ran two week training workshops (held at a nice resort) for wealthy chess lovers, and created courses for less wealthy (while cutting out the middlemen like ChessBase, chess.com and others), he'd go right into the millions in income without changing his schedule too much.

Probably tens of millions.

But they're all specialists with clever businessmen as "managers".

Maggy boy has his dad, so that's good, but as I said, if he (or any other titled player) was really ambitious and learnt a bit about marketing, they'd be rich as hell within a year or so.

The same for Martial Arts instructors, chess programmers (yes!, assuming the marketing was right), or anybody with a talent that's difficult to replace, yet high perceived value.

Even someone like Nigel Short is nowhere near the top players now, but if he wanted to wrap a business/brand around himself, he'd be rich very quickly due to his legend status.

Even me...I'm an untitled player, but have so many opportunities thrown at me that I'm drowning recently.

Just last week I had to reject 3 private chess students (who can find an IM/GM who is cheaper), and an offer to collaborate on a series of online chess courses here in China.

If I wasn't such a lazy bastard, I'd be wealthy right now too, but..sadly I am....so...how's that engine tournament going? *changes windows*

[BrendanJNorman]

It is sadly true. There is something about sports federations that breeds corruption. For example, FIFA (soccer) - see http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2016/04 ... and-soccer. And UCI (cycling) is said to have covered up doping by athletes and there are allegations of bribery. Olympic boxing is said to be fixed (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... llegations) - and boxing in general is one of the dirtiest sports businesses.

--Jon

The RIO Olympics was a very interesting event (not the sport so much) for anyone paying attention.

In my eyes, one of the most political olympics ever...

A lot of what was happening was manufactured backstage for the sheep (who never question a thing they see on TV or read online) to consume and shift their worldview, but nevertheless...

I had a theory about what appeared to be blatant cheating by the Russians in the boxing at Rio.

So many Russians won by decision, despite having had their heads boxed all over the ring every round.

But I don't think the Russians had any motivation to do this.

Watch a few (a dozen will be better) REAL video interviews with Putin on YT and try to absorb what type of character this guy is.

Not from the BBC/CNN (or whatever your powerful western media source is), but from some random source.

I doubt such am intelligent and thoughtful (whether good or bad) leader would give clearance to such a stupid and pointless endeavor.

My theory (which is very logical) is that given the instability (political, military, social) of the U.S, they found an opportunity for what I'll call a "false flag" corruption.

That is, they used their infinitely extendable arm, to arrange the fights in favour of the RUSSIANS, in order to justify their narrative, foreign policy and recent actions in Europe (since pulling out of the M.E).

The real world is ugly as hell and full of this type of behaviour...and this is why Propaganda ( and so much other material, is essential reading for all of us.

Sadly, nobody cares...the sleep is a deep one.

[Ozymandias]

If there are guys I know personally (and probably numerous who I don't know) who are as weak as 1700, yet making 50k+ USD (and many ridiculously more) due to having persistance and intelligent positioning (in the marketing sense), I don't see why an FM, IM or GM couldn't do even better by leveraging their credentials.

Most of the time its because they are specialists (the only skill they have is chess), so most of the time their life is managed by someone else, despite their genius in their chosen field.

[...]

Laggy boy has his dad, so that's good, but as I said, if he (or any other titled player) was really ambitious and learnt a bit about marketing, they'd be rich as hell within a year or so.

I heard someone say, that all you need to be rich, is the desire to be. If that's your only goal in life, you're better positioned than others with more studies, intelligence... The thing about ambition is, when you think that nothing short of filthy rich, will be "decent living" for you, you aren't really being ambitious, you're fighting to get something you actually need.

[Sean Evans]

Nothing about computer chess in this article, it should be in the CPForum.