reflectionofpower wrote: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"
excellent point & a personal experience to illustrate the point. My grandmother always said,"Life is what you make of it"
She also said," A fool with money is soon parted"
& "You can't get blood from a stone"
"Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken." (Dune - 1984)
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.
The question is if 2000$ per month is enough for a decent living or not.
In the final championship of Israel in chess
We have the following prizes:
In any case at least 1500 shekels for players with fide rating above 2550
and they also get a room without paying in the tournament and
Inspite of it I do not see players like Smirin play in it.
He cannot be sure of winning because few players above 2600 play but I think that he can expect average prize of something like 10,000 shekels
and clearly expect to earn more than 2000$ for participating and if he does not do it then probably he expect to earn more money in a different tournament.
Note that smirin has only fide rating of 2669 that mean place 78 in the world and I guess that 2700 players that are not in the top 20 can earn more money than him.
The best player who compete in the israeli championship has today fide rating of 2649 that is not enough for the top 100.
