Who Makes More Money: Chess vs Poker

There has always been a comparison between poker and chess, and many people agree that they are very similar. Both require strategy, skill, mental strength, and competitiveness. The highest levels are only reachable to hardworking intellectuals who are willing to dedicate years of competing and consistent practicing to become grandmasters.

The difference is the way each of them is perceived by the public. Chess is considered a noble sport, and the best players have reputations as high-level intellectuals/geniuouses, while poker players are still perceived in some parts of the world as gamblers and degenerates.

Process of Becoming World-Class Player

As we previously mentioned, becoming a world-class chess player is an intense and dedicated process. Kids need to start playing and learning the principles of chess at the age of five, as children have greater neuroplasticity and faster learning ability. This will give them more time to develop pattern recognition and gather the experience needed to reach the grandmaster level.

Chess players who want to maximise their potential could benefit from finding a good coach early to speed up the process and take advantage of their fast learning ability. They are required to study theory, work on tactics, develop a deep understanding of strategy, and study and practice each part of the game separately.

Then, there is a need for competition that will challenge the player and push him to become better. The player has to stay consistent and motivated for long periods to finally reach a world-class level.

The process for a poker player is completely different. You are not allowed to play poker for money until you are 18 years old or 21 in the US. This fact raises some questions about what potential poker players actually have, as they are not starting as kids when their brains are wired for learning.

This can already be a big flaw in the process of becoming a world-class poker player, on top of how your family and friends perceive your choice of pursuing poker as a career.

Most of the time, for them to accept it, you will need to bring the receipts or, in other words, make some big money for them to see that you are not wasting your life gambling.

Also, in poker, you will need to have some money to use as fuel to play and gain experience. The process of investing money while learning can be long for some players and may discourage them, as on small samples, we don't have outcomes in our own hands, but we need some help from the variance.

After losing money and learning, poker players will end up in a "breakeven phase" where they are not winning or losing money. They need to improve faster than the curve is improving if they want to become profitable and not fall below the line and get back to the "losing phase."

The "Winning phase" is the sweet part of poker. It is when players have invested enough time in playing and studying outside of the poker tables to finally have the experience and skill to win money by playing poker. This might take a few years for some players, but with the right guidance, the process can be accelerated and reached in a few months.

Who Makes, and How Much Money..

Chess

The first money chess players make is when they start winning big national and regional competitions like the European or US championships at the age of around 12. That money is a few hundred dollars, which is barely enough to cover travel and hotel expenses. Significant amounts of money start coming when they start coaching or creating content for online platforms, but that is already going into the sphere of social media and streaming.

The big money in chess is exclusive to the top 20 grandmasters in the world. These grandmasters are invited to big tournaments, get endorsements, and use their fame to build an online fanbase and monetize it through streaming. The top 20 grandmasters can make from a few hundred thousand dollars a year to over a million.

According to multiple sources, GM Hikaru Nakamura has a net worth of over $50 million, with only a small percentage of that earnings coming from prizes he has won in chess competitions.

Nakamura has more than 2 million followers on Twitch and 3 million on YouTube, and he is also popular on other social media platforms. His main income comes from streaming videos of him playing or commenting on his games.

We can say Hikaru is an example, as other world-class grandmasters are not close to that net worth number. Only a few, like Magnus Carlsen, who is widely considered the best chess player of all time, have a similar net worth of $50 million, but for other top players, it is closer to $5 million or less (we are talking about only 20 people in the whole world).

Poker

As previously mentioned, a poker player has to go through three phases before he starts making money, and from that point, he has to choose his approach to making money. He can do it by playing cash games and rakeback grinding, bumhunting, competing at the highest level, or playing tournaments, where he has to beat huge player fields and spam a huge number of tournaments to realize his EV as variance in tournaments is crazy high. In our article, you can read more about how to make $1,000,000 playing poker.

The world's top poker players make similar amounts as the world's top chess players, but they have even higher potential as they can get into super-rich private games where the stakes are high and the players are not good.

The biggest difference is between the rest of the players who are not world-class but are good. They can make more than a good living playing poker, and there are probably thousands of players in this category making over $100k a year.

Conclusion

Both chess and poker players can make about the same money when they are top world players, but the earning power drops significantly for chess players who are not in the top 20. Thousands of poker players outside of the top 20 can make over $100k a year and make decent livings. Even small-stakes poker players can make $1-2K a month and live from playing poker, which seems difficult for mediocre chess players outside of streaming and other spheres.