How do GM's make a living out of chess?

Becoming a GM is kak hard.

"Being a GM being a chess genius!"

(It's like surfing the perfect wave without getting wet, running without getting tired...)

I like chess, and would'nt mind studying to be a GM and teaching chess online with a smile, than having to wake up early and go to work and brake my back.

So could you guys please tell me how do GM's make a living out of chess?

They get paid for simuls, and lectures, and maybe they give private lessons, and win tournament prizes. Book sales, too, maybe. Not sure how much your average GM gets paid per year with all of these things combined. 

Maybe advertisements, too. 

I don't think most GMs can make a living out of chess. There are 2000+ GMs in the world, and the number is rapidly rising. Maybe the top 100 can make a decent living. The rest have to try and survive. Some GMs have daytime jobs in a whole other field. Some write books, do commentary, give training.

I guess it's like other sports. Play for fun. Don't expect to get rich. That is only for a few priviligded lucky people.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/making-money-in-chess

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/crosswords/chess/chess-anand-said-to-be-best-paid-player.html?_r=0

A couple of links for you there

The number of GMs is around 1400 including women. Also it's not like other professional sports such as football(soccer), basketball and baseball. In such sports even a mediocre guy can earn some money most doctors, engineers and teachers can only dream of(Yes, it's such an unfair world). Chess players deserve to earn much more than them but you are right, only top 50-100 can earn a good living by playing in tournaments. The others either have daytime jobs, or they do some coaching or write books.

You can even make a meager living as an amature chess player playing in minor competitions each week. It's certainly possible to earn a few thousand pounds/dollars a year doing so. Or hustling....

Lol.

That is only what most Americans do.

"You just have to work super hard and smart! Give heart to Chess and It will also give heart to you!"

Clearly not an authoritative source, but interestingly, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_handicap:

Macon Shibut writes that in the mid-19th century "chess was a gambling game ... . Individual matches for stakes were the focus of organized play. Matches between leading players attracted a wide following so masters often succeeded in finding sponsors to back their personal wagers."^[43]However, the available sums were generally relatively meager, and travel was arduous, so the amount of money obtained in this way was not sufficient to enable professional chess players to support themselves financially."^[43] Moreover, the first major chess tournament was not organized until 1851,^[44] and chess tournaments remained a rarity for several decades after that.^[45] With tournaments not a reliable means of making a living, odds-giving became a way for masters to entice amateurs into playing for wagers, since the odds gave the amateur a fighting chance.^[1][43][46] The odds system even became the earliest rating system: amateurs were graded according to what handicap they needed to compete against a master, and were referred to as a "Rook player" or "Pawn and move player" as we would today speak of players by their Elo ratings, e.g. "1200 player" and "1800 player".^[47]

Intresting,

Thank you!

Wikipedia has a list of all living GMs (dated September 2012). There are 1380 GMs on that list. So you are right. However, I assume quite a few have passed away during the last 60 years already. So the total number of GMs (living and deceased) might be 2000.

Anyway, 1400 GMs is way too many to make it so special that you can make a living off of just being a GM.

I make a living off chess

What FIDE rating does one have to get to coach rich people with money?