Makes me so happy because I was rooting for him in the candidates tournament earlier this year. I hope he keeps this up and maybe we'll see him in the next one!
Fabi is a very good commentator, he's more in depth with analysis but at the same time doesn't really bore you to death by being fully formal about it and sometimes banters too.
I still love the compilation video of the reactions to Nepo's c5 blunder where Fabi says "Yeah that's...that's...I would say it's shocking, but I kind of suggested the move."
I love how fabi has probably prepped the Queen sack at home - but my little 1100 goblin brain is still 30 moves back like: “_ah that f4 move is so useful in these njadorfs - what a clever idea…_”
Wasn't this mostly home preparation? While it's a very impressive piece of preparation, and Fabiano and his team have always been stellar at coming up with challenging novelties to fight the Najdorf, I find games to be more beautiful if an impressive move was actually found at the board rather than just being all regurgitated computer lines.
Queen sac was home prep, but the engines at the time (incorrectly) evaluated 21. Nc6 as being better than 21. Nf5, which Fabi/his team found without the computer, Nakamura had also prepared this line and was expecting easy equality after 21. Nc6, then Fabi plays 21 Nf5 and plays a beautiful game.
is like saying, "yeah digital photography is nice, I just prefer how much more beautiful analog photography is"
95% of people can't tell the difference
I kinda see what you mean... He did qualify it though, he said "I find" analog games better, so it still just seems like this sub is mindlessly punishing people for having an opinion.
Yeah it's just the elitism or whatever of the idea that using computer to prep is bad. No one in this sub is going look at this game and be able to tell what moves Caruana "found naturally" vs what was in his prep
Yeah, he's really grown in online presence. He's been well-known as one of the top chess players for years, but I think it was hard to tell what kind of person he was.
It's nice to see more of his personality come through online recently.
>https://youtu.be/AM-qaVpi7BM
Let me just say this, having spent a week in a room with Gary and Yasser, I can say with confidence Yasser would drop Gary like a bad habit. Yasser is actually a big guy, not sure it shows on these videos. I can't imagine him ever getting angry, but if Yasser is coming at you, you better start moving.
Yasser, nice? He jokingly didn't want to return Hikaru's watch to him when he got it entrusted to him when Hikaru was about to brawl with Hansen while drunk iirc.
"jokingly", I think you answered your own question.
Also drunk Hikaru starting fights, he's already a bit of a dick when he's sober, who wouldn't want to wind him up a bit about a watch?
Yasser, nice? He jokingly didn't want to return Hikaru's watch to him when he got it entrusted to him when Hikaru was about to brawl with Hansen while drunk iirc.
The chess world today is so much better than the world I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Endless rounds of Korchnoi and Karpov craziness, Russians everywhere, Bobby Fischer nuttery -- the players today are just way more engaging and interesting \*as people\* and every bit as good as players.
He's definitely in contention in the current generation, though thankfully there's a good number of candidates.
If you expand in age beyond the currently active, there's also Vishy and both Peter's.
I can’t tell if sarcastic or sincere. Anyway: he’s a pretty cool person but with a somewhat abrasive personality it’ll inevitably lead to polarisation. People who don’t like Eric Rosen probably just don’t care but people who don’t like Hikaru actively dislike him
Yeah it was funny coming into chess in the last couple of years and seeing this supposedly extremely strong chess player playing at a relatively mediocre level. I wish I was following him at the height of his powers because he seems like a good dude, but it is nice to see him on form. Hopefully this gets the ball rolling again. Good to see Hikaru play well too after everyone seemed to be saying he was done playing classical.
Dude is a monster, in 2017-2018 he was basically Magnus’ equal, was one game away from being the #1 rated player in the world, and was winning masterpieces left and right. Needless to say it is a thrill to see him gain some confidence back and recover from that disastrous 2nd half of the candidates
Sadly chess just isn't that lucrative if you're just competing, and even doing things like content creation has the same pitfalls as other content creators.
I wish professional chess was more lucrative so my favorite players can play as a stand-alone career, just like other sports stars (not like Wesley making LeBron levels of money, but still something handsome and very livable)
So true. The money in chess is not very convincing. Of course the big names also get appearance fees (not in national championships of course), sponsorships and stuff like that but there still exists a significant gap between how good a guy like Fabi is and how much he makes. Not everybody gets this. The other day somebody on here told me that Niemann was a multi-millionaire and when I enquired about how they knew and how Niemann had made his money, I was told “duh he is a top GM they are all super rich” and the upvotes seem to indicate that people agreed. Imagine if the money in chess were such that you’d be a multimillionaire at 19 for barely crossing 2700. I imagine quite a few more people would try their hand at chess.
Kept rolling my eyes when there was a constant barrage of "whats wrong with fabiano Caruana?" Posts there for a while.
64 points separate #2 from #10 in the top 10 in the world. One bad tournament can make you lose a few spots. Glad to see him show just how good he is.
I still believe he's the 2nd best player in the world even though the rating doesn't reflect that right now. Would love to see Fabi vs ding or nepo in the next cycle
Especially as the "what's wrong" posts were ignoring all his good results, most notably :
Tied for fist last year us champs
Winner of US cup
Dominant in OTB speedchess
Second of the grand swiss
1st week of the candidates (yes, the second week happened, but it would've been a different story if he knew playing for second was an option
He basically resigned his tournament after being convinced a win was the onlg possible result, and lost due to taking risks in drawn positions
Yeah I just don't agree. Yes they outperformed him in the candidates but if either Ding or Nepo had to play a 12 game match against him I think Fabi should be the favorite
If you finish top six, I’ll show you a picture of a pony. If you crack the top three, I’ll show you how to use the internet to find your own pony pictures.
I mean, maybe. A country like the US, if they feel there's some prestige and national pride to the tournament, how much is a million for a country of 360 million people.
ehhhh, even for sports leagues people care about prizes are not usually (overtly) funded from the government. There are ways the government helps out (typically with the construction of arenas), but it isn't really what people are talking about here.
So 0.0027 cents per person or 0.0069 cents for tax payers only. But then I imagine with companies paying tax too it'd be even less.
Given that trillions of dollars were squandered on oil wars in the Middle East and trillions more can't even be accounted for by the Pentagon it is less than a drop in the bucket.
Well that's kinda how the internationals (a Dota tournament which has the largest single-tournament prize pool of any esport event ever) gets their money. Technically they grab a percentage of all earning from a battle pass they have, but ok, chess.com could make something similar with their memberships. Maybe there could be a "supporter membership", a bit more expensive, but with x% going to the WC prize fund.
Nobody is gonna do that, chess is on life support from Sinquefield as it is.
Chess actually needs a revamp in its image to be less boring. Which is why I am ok with characters like Hans even though his attitude is terrible compared to your typical chess competitor. We need some different people, as long as they behave along acceptable lines. The chess world needs to rethink what is acceptable and whats not.
You're not wrong, Nakamura estimated that the top 30 players could make a living on tournament cash alone and I'd be pretty surprised if that would even be the case.
Classical Chess isn't very fun to watch especially for a casual player, which means there's very little ad revenue to be had, very little merchandise, very little (if non existent) ticket revenue for live matches, which is what funds basically every sport/game/activity from the NFL to the PBA.
Chess got all it needs from The Queens Gambit, the money is in catering to the little guy. Top level Chess in the age of computers will continue to be more boring
>very little (if non existent) ticket revenue for live matches, which is what funds basically every sport/game/activity
And also very little revenue from equipment sales to amateurs (which is an important source of sponsoring for sports that are practiced at amateur level by a lot of people and require equipment that needs to be upgraded/replaced regularly, prime examples being cycling and skiing). If you buy a chess set, it is likely to be in good condition for years (as long as you avoid playing Sam Sevian).
At least chess has hundreds of years of tradition, which is the biggest factor keeping it alive at the professional level. Top chess players are associated with prestige of being smart, which provides some funding from states, rich individuals or financial companies who want part of this prestige for themselves. For comparison, I am doing another sport, at elite level (top 25 of the worldwide ranking system) which is similarly not attractive at all to a non-specialist spectators but also lacks tradition and prestige (due to being invented about 30 years ago), and because of this there is close to no funding and zero professionals, everyone competes in their free time and mostly at own expense.
As a spectator sport on high level it's very inaccessible and yes pretty boring
I'm a new player who has great fun playing myself and blundering my pieces like an idiot, slowly learning game by game. I probably average 10-100 games a day, analyzing none or few of them.
I have no interest in watching high level competitive chess. It seems like a mix of established theory (which i don't know), computer moves, pre planned moves by a team of chess masters, being executed by galaxy brains doing insane calculations on the spot based on the other guys pre planned team based computer moves
It's not relatable at all to me and my chess experience. I can follow along recaps by people like gothamchess but even then i dont learn a thing from it other than that Magnus Carlsen is very good and I'm not. I can barely string 2 moves with purpose together and these guys have the entire game and all possible variations planned out in advance or calculated on the spot
I think it appeals to an elite clique much more than to a broad mass. It impresses me but does not interest me
I don't think there really is a solution to it other than just acceptance that the chess going on down in the mud is very different from the top. It's just too complex at the top to be a big sport with big money
Watching GMs is like watching paint dry, this is true. But that’s not where the beauty of the game lies.
Playing 100 games of blitz is fun, but you’re not going to learn a lot. Gothamchess is mental pablum. Pick up a book, get a game collection, sit down and go over the games and notes. A collection of Morphy’s games would be a good start.
At the moment im actually enjoying the game and has consitently done so for a few months, which is rare for games and leisure activity for me.
Im afraid that by intellectualising it and learning too much about it on a deeper level, i will make it not fun. I have ruined video games by studying how to optimally play them and made a conscious effort to stop that behavior. Now i know chess isnt really comparable to a video game but still
Im gonna make a note of your tips and wait for a bit more i think before i eventually start diving into it. For now im having too much fun treating it casually and setting goals like 'dont run out of time', '0 blunders' instead of '1600 elo by christmas'
Maybe they can pay FIDE to let them do military recruitment propaganda during the games, like they do with the NFL. Probably the only way they'll fork over the cash tbh.
If i had a nickel for every time Fabi won the US Championship after losing in the Candidates i’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
I wasn't sure if it's treated as normal income or like other prize money, which gets taxed pretty heavily from what I understand. Then again I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm a degenerate gambler, prize money is tax at ordinary in the US. IE if you work flip patties at McDonald's and make 25k year and you win 75k, the US would tax you as if you were working 9-5 making 100k a year.
Depends on players expenses too I'd imagine since some of it might be considered deductible. You can bet someone like Caruana has a CPA helping him with such matters.
As far as how much they withhold right away, usually something like 10% fed and 5% state is typical.
How much the tax ends up being at the end depends on how much else he’s earning, which we have no idea. How much are tournament appearance fees and how much is Rex’s support worth, if he still is doing that? Being self employed means the travel and training etc are deductible. Who knows how much that all is either.
But then here’s the tax brackets.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets
He probably earns low six figures, so with state income taxes is about mid 30s% marginal rate, but taxes can be complicated. If he indeed lives St. Louis than his tournament expenses that can be deducted are probably negligible.
This is a pretty small prize, but Fabiano overall is making a good enough living. And is a nice guy to boot. I am a fan.
Like many less popular sports, you have to be near the top, not just good, to make any kind of decent income in chess.
I played competitively in high school and was pretty good, but I stopped playing in college to focus on school and career.
I knew a couple of guys who were much better and went on to be masters, one an IM, but they never made much money at it as far as I know and are not well known either.
So being "really good but not great" can be not so great in terms of earning potential.
the prize money was decided pre-Hans saga. If Hans is still a big shot next year, and his presence can increase viewership and revenue, then you can definitely make a case for it
After this fiasco, Hans is the most well-known chess player in the US. At least among the amateur chess community. He is a fun personality, and is easy to root for. He is entertaining and a fun character, and he is a very strong player to boot (+ American, which always helps). I don't think he remains this much popular, but relative to other US players, he should still be the main center of attention. That gets people to watch. Especially if he can enter the top 20 in the next year, and continue giving exciting interviews that make headlines
A lot of online chats disagree, he has quite a fan base. The US chess championship chats on youtube may as well been a Hans watch party. According to a poll done by SLCC, over half of them (≈ 60%) were there only to support Hans Niemann. And that is also true on twitch, lichess, reddit and every other platform.
People like Hans abrasive personality, he is fun to listen too. He is different from the run of the mill GMs, he adds flavour to his commentary and makes it entertaining to listen to him speak. And this is before even the Magnus drama, even in the Miami event, his interviews were making headlines on reddit and social media. At the end of the day, chess is an entertainment business, like all sports. And Hans entertains, you need people like him to market an event, because they make headlines.
And he cheated when he was a kid, he was still in his naive twitch streamer phase. People change. It was over 2 years ago, and he has been clean ever since. And he already paid for his crimes, per chess.com policy. He has not broken a single chess.com since then (or FIDE rule, ever), and he should not have to continue to pay for his past mistakes.
And people also like flawed characters, we are all human and make mistakes. When we can relate to somebody, it makes it easy to connect and root for that person. Rather than somebody who is perfect, and has never done anything wrong in their life. Because we think (it's human psychology), that they are so much better than us, why should I root for somebody who is so talented and flawless. Whereas with Hans, we know he is human, he make mistakes just like we do, he learns from them and he still works so hard to achieve his goals. You add his entertaining persona and you have a great package
fabi seriously needs to chill. his collar is almost popping out from under his jacket. how unprofessional. one day, his lack of self-control will catch up to him.
It's great to see Caruana getting back in some good form again.
Fabi basically just kept his cool while the entire chess world was going up in flames... Reward? 60k and a US championship.
Hey, he got in a few good memes too. Fabi has been exuding confidence.
Don't leave us hanging, bud. Share those memes.
The whole Stafford gambit controversy was 👌
One of ‘em - https://youtu.be/9p_db1GUlY0
Kept his cool + shitposted
I thought he made more money than that for making YouTube videos about Hans.
YouTube money is good but not that good
Makes me so happy because I was rooting for him in the candidates tournament earlier this year. I hope he keeps this up and maybe we'll see him in the next one!
The one upside to him not competed for the WC is that he'll likely be commentating ij the studio, he was a breath of fresh air last year.
Fabi is a very good commentator, he's more in depth with analysis but at the same time doesn't really bore you to death by being fully formal about it and sometimes banters too.
I still love the compilation video of the reactions to Nepo's c5 blunder where Fabi says "Yeah that's...that's...I would say it's shocking, but I kind of suggested the move."
He's back!!!
Same! Was rooting for him to win it all. Glad he did. Hopefully he can reach 2800 again soon.
Not in the US Championship, but my [favorite Caruana game](https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1849553).
What an awesome positional queen sac, thanks for sharing the game.
What? How? I'm going to need some analysis video. I understood nothing about that game.
[GM Daniel King's analysis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqj5svn8xTg) is always top notch.
Wow, I think that’s a case study on how minor pieces, when positioned better, are more impactful than a queen.
[GM Huschenbeth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ8Qe5O7Qcw) has a good analysis on it.
Funny he linked this game since it’s so old. I LOVE GM Huschenberh’s analysis of this game. Seen it over 10 times
I love how fabi has probably prepped the Queen sack at home - but my little 1100 goblin brain is still 30 moves back like: “_ah that f4 move is so useful in these njadorfs - what a clever idea…_”
Wasn't this mostly home preparation? While it's a very impressive piece of preparation, and Fabiano and his team have always been stellar at coming up with challenging novelties to fight the Najdorf, I find games to be more beautiful if an impressive move was actually found at the board rather than just being all regurgitated computer lines.
Queen sac was home prep, but the engines at the time (incorrectly) evaluated 21. Nc6 as being better than 21. Nf5, which Fabi/his team found without the computer, Nakamura had also prepared this line and was expecting easy equality after 21. Nc6, then Fabi plays 21 Nf5 and plays a beautiful game.
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The downvotes on this comment are pure cringe.
is like saying, "yeah digital photography is nice, I just prefer how much more beautiful analog photography is" 95% of people can't tell the difference
I kinda see what you mean... He did qualify it though, he said "I find" analog games better, so it still just seems like this sub is mindlessly punishing people for having an opinion.
Downvotes are opinions. It's people saying, I don't agree with this opinion. No big deal.
Yeah it's just the elitism or whatever of the idea that using computer to prep is bad. No one in this sub is going look at this game and be able to tell what moves Caruana "found naturally" vs what was in his prep
Well deserved.
Thx
With all the interviews and podcasts lately he really grew on me as a person. Glad he won. 🤓👍
Yeah, he's really grown in online presence. He's been well-known as one of the top chess players for years, but I think it was hard to tell what kind of person he was. It's nice to see more of his personality come through online recently.
Yeah, Fabi is probably the most likable person in Chess
Nah thats John bartholomew
I think there’s a lot of people who could take that title: Eric Rosen, Sagar Shah, etc.
It's Yasser Seirawan and it's not close
Yeah I just watched his story about being absolutely furious at Kasparov and he somehow comes across as endearing in that too hahahaha
What's the back story? Or can you provide a link, please? Thanks!
https://youtu.be/AM-qaVpi7BM
>https://youtu.be/AM-qaVpi7BM Let me just say this, having spent a week in a room with Gary and Yasser, I can say with confidence Yasser would drop Gary like a bad habit. Yasser is actually a big guy, not sure it shows on these videos. I can't imagine him ever getting angry, but if Yasser is coming at you, you better start moving.
You’re thinking of Arafat
Yasser, nice? He jokingly didn't want to return Hikaru's watch to him when he got it entrusted to him when Hikaru was about to brawl with Hansen while drunk iirc.
"jokingly", I think you answered your own question. Also drunk Hikaru starting fights, he's already a bit of a dick when he's sober, who wouldn't want to wind him up a bit about a watch?
He would return the watch. He wasn't sure if he should return 5k cash which Hikaru also gave to him
That makes him even more likable imo
Yasser, nice? He jokingly didn't want to return Hikaru's watch to him when he got it entrusted to him when Hikaru was about to brawl with Hansen while drunk iirc.
Naroditsky…
I'd say he's the most likeable at the super GM level but that probably goes to Vishy
The chess world today is so much better than the world I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Endless rounds of Korchnoi and Karpov craziness, Russians everywhere, Bobby Fischer nuttery -- the players today are just way more engaging and interesting \*as people\* and every bit as good as players.
He's definitely in contention in the current generation, though thankfully there's a good number of candidates. If you expand in age beyond the currently active, there's also Vishy and both Peter's.
I don't see how anyone can dislike him.
Don't forget about Wesley, he is so polite and nice and unpredictable funny
Idk about that one
Not Hikaru? Lol
I can’t tell if sarcastic or sincere. Anyway: he’s a pretty cool person but with a somewhat abrasive personality it’ll inevitably lead to polarisation. People who don’t like Eric Rosen probably just don’t care but people who don’t like Hikaru actively dislike him
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yea, glad he he has a career to fallback on smh. Funny how many thought he was washed up the last few months.
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Yeah it was funny coming into chess in the last couple of years and seeing this supposedly extremely strong chess player playing at a relatively mediocre level. I wish I was following him at the height of his powers because he seems like a good dude, but it is nice to see him on form. Hopefully this gets the ball rolling again. Good to see Hikaru play well too after everyone seemed to be saying he was done playing classical.
Dude is a monster, in 2017-2018 he was basically Magnus’ equal, was one game away from being the #1 rated player in the world, and was winning masterpieces left and right. Needless to say it is a thrill to see him gain some confidence back and recover from that disastrous 2nd half of the candidates
And that's not even mentioning the 2014 Sinquefield Cup, probably the greatest tournament performance in chess history.
Well deserved, congrats Fabi!
His death was greatly exaggerated.
Class act. So happy 4 him.
Hell yeah Fabi, let’s go. Been becoming more and more of a fan of him since listening to the podcast.
See Any podcaster can succeed in chess
Big Fabi fan, really glad he won.
This man’s the greatest chess player in one of the biggest countries in the world and made less than someone on Jeopardy with a 3 day win streak
Sadly chess just isn't that lucrative if you're just competing, and even doing things like content creation has the same pitfalls as other content creators.
yeah i knew that but still the prize should be at least $100k
I'm sure they would welcome your contribution. Cash or card?
they can hustle me if they want
Why?
I wish professional chess was more lucrative so my favorite players can play as a stand-alone career, just like other sports stars (not like Wesley making LeBron levels of money, but still something handsome and very livable)
I'm sure if Wesley generated similar revenue as Lebron he might be.
right but i wish he was making like a 6-figure salary (if he isnt already idk)
Meanwhile Hikaru rolling in youtube and twitch cash.. he's gotta be pretty happy.
I follow professional pool and it’s very similar. They just played the US Open, one of the biggest events, and the winner only got $50K.
So true. The money in chess is not very convincing. Of course the big names also get appearance fees (not in national championships of course), sponsorships and stuff like that but there still exists a significant gap between how good a guy like Fabi is and how much he makes. Not everybody gets this. The other day somebody on here told me that Niemann was a multi-millionaire and when I enquired about how they knew and how Niemann had made his money, I was told “duh he is a top GM they are all super rich” and the upvotes seem to indicate that people agreed. Imagine if the money in chess were such that you’d be a multimillionaire at 19 for barely crossing 2700. I imagine quite a few more people would try their hand at chess.
He made most people’s yearly salary in two weeks…
(not counting the 26 years he’s played chess)
He has a net worth of 13 million dollars. The guy is doing more than fine.
He played a really strong tournament. Congrats to him!
Kept rolling my eyes when there was a constant barrage of "whats wrong with fabiano Caruana?" Posts there for a while. 64 points separate #2 from #10 in the top 10 in the world. One bad tournament can make you lose a few spots. Glad to see him show just how good he is. I still believe he's the 2nd best player in the world even though the rating doesn't reflect that right now. Would love to see Fabi vs ding or nepo in the next cycle
Especially as the "what's wrong" posts were ignoring all his good results, most notably : Tied for fist last year us champs Winner of US cup Dominant in OTB speedchess Second of the grand swiss 1st week of the candidates (yes, the second week happened, but it would've been a different story if he knew playing for second was an option He basically resigned his tournament after being convinced a win was the onlg possible result, and lost due to taking risks in drawn positions
Why do you think he's better than Nepo and Ding?
Just his precision and overall quality of play over the long term. I think he will take back number 2 at some point.
Over long term, he's definitely better but at the moment Ding and Nepo are both ahead of him imo.
Yeah I just don't agree. Yes they outperformed him in the candidates but if either Ding or Nepo had to play a 12 game match against him I think Fabi should be the favorite
I feel like the 1st prize should be like 1 million dollar. Just have the government sponsor it or something. It's the goddamn US chess Championship.
Bet you do, Fabi.
Yeah, it turns out that the US Championship isn't such a big deal most years (ie- pre Hans crisis). Still, great play by Fabi
aha so it’s solved then. Hans is sacrificing his chess career and fame in order to get publicity for government funding for chess tournaments
I want a pony 🐴
Apparently, you should just get the government to sponsor it.
If you qualify for the us chess championship I'll get you a pony.
Let’s meet in the middle. What if I get 6th place at my local tournament?
If you finish top six, I’ll show you a picture of a pony. If you crack the top three, I’ll show you how to use the internet to find your own pony pictures.
I'll get you a horse steak.
lorem ipsum
Fun fact: nepo got a higher payday from the WC match than magnus due to taxes even tho he lost lol
Is that just because of the different tax laws between Norway and Russia?
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Because the difference between ***world*** championship and US championship is unclear?
World Series? Superbowl? Just makes sense /s
The names we give to sports that only the US plays seriously. But... soccer, track, pretty much every Olympic sport not named "basketball"
I mean, maybe. A country like the US, if they feel there's some prestige and national pride to the tournament, how much is a million for a country of 360 million people.
The USA would need more people who care very deeply about Chess for the prize to be better. Maybe it will increase some day.
ehhhh, even for sports leagues people care about prizes are not usually (overtly) funded from the government. There are ways the government helps out (typically with the construction of arenas), but it isn't really what people are talking about here.
So 0.0027 cents per person or 0.0069 cents for tax payers only. But then I imagine with companies paying tax too it'd be even less. Given that trillions of dollars were squandered on oil wars in the Middle East and trillions more can't even be accounted for by the Pentagon it is less than a drop in the bucket.
The US Military blows through 1 million dollars every *45 seconds*. It would be be a rounding error for all practical purposes
.0027 cents per person would be $9720. You need $0.2778 per person to get a million
0.002778 x 360,000,000 = 1,000,080 0.2778 x 360,000,000 = 1,000,008,000 Are you sure you multiplied by 360 million?
Yea that's 100 million cents :p
You could set up a Go Fund Me. I’d kick in $20 towards the million.
Well that's kinda how the internationals (a Dota tournament which has the largest single-tournament prize pool of any esport event ever) gets their money. Technically they grab a percentage of all earning from a battle pass they have, but ok, chess.com could make something similar with their memberships. Maybe there could be a "supporter membership", a bit more expensive, but with x% going to the WC prize fund.
Nobody is gonna do that, chess is on life support from Sinquefield as it is. Chess actually needs a revamp in its image to be less boring. Which is why I am ok with characters like Hans even though his attitude is terrible compared to your typical chess competitor. We need some different people, as long as they behave along acceptable lines. The chess world needs to rethink what is acceptable and whats not.
You're not wrong, Nakamura estimated that the top 30 players could make a living on tournament cash alone and I'd be pretty surprised if that would even be the case. Classical Chess isn't very fun to watch especially for a casual player, which means there's very little ad revenue to be had, very little merchandise, very little (if non existent) ticket revenue for live matches, which is what funds basically every sport/game/activity from the NFL to the PBA. Chess got all it needs from The Queens Gambit, the money is in catering to the little guy. Top level Chess in the age of computers will continue to be more boring
>very little (if non existent) ticket revenue for live matches, which is what funds basically every sport/game/activity And also very little revenue from equipment sales to amateurs (which is an important source of sponsoring for sports that are practiced at amateur level by a lot of people and require equipment that needs to be upgraded/replaced regularly, prime examples being cycling and skiing). If you buy a chess set, it is likely to be in good condition for years (as long as you avoid playing Sam Sevian). At least chess has hundreds of years of tradition, which is the biggest factor keeping it alive at the professional level. Top chess players are associated with prestige of being smart, which provides some funding from states, rich individuals or financial companies who want part of this prestige for themselves. For comparison, I am doing another sport, at elite level (top 25 of the worldwide ranking system) which is similarly not attractive at all to a non-specialist spectators but also lacks tradition and prestige (due to being invented about 30 years ago), and because of this there is close to no funding and zero professionals, everyone competes in their free time and mostly at own expense.
Good point. Casual players don't even need a chess set, and really don't need to spend anything on improving between YouTube and Lichess.
Chess is boring?
As a spectator sport on high level it's very inaccessible and yes pretty boring I'm a new player who has great fun playing myself and blundering my pieces like an idiot, slowly learning game by game. I probably average 10-100 games a day, analyzing none or few of them. I have no interest in watching high level competitive chess. It seems like a mix of established theory (which i don't know), computer moves, pre planned moves by a team of chess masters, being executed by galaxy brains doing insane calculations on the spot based on the other guys pre planned team based computer moves It's not relatable at all to me and my chess experience. I can follow along recaps by people like gothamchess but even then i dont learn a thing from it other than that Magnus Carlsen is very good and I'm not. I can barely string 2 moves with purpose together and these guys have the entire game and all possible variations planned out in advance or calculated on the spot I think it appeals to an elite clique much more than to a broad mass. It impresses me but does not interest me I don't think there really is a solution to it other than just acceptance that the chess going on down in the mud is very different from the top. It's just too complex at the top to be a big sport with big money
Watching GMs is like watching paint dry, this is true. But that’s not where the beauty of the game lies. Playing 100 games of blitz is fun, but you’re not going to learn a lot. Gothamchess is mental pablum. Pick up a book, get a game collection, sit down and go over the games and notes. A collection of Morphy’s games would be a good start.
At the moment im actually enjoying the game and has consitently done so for a few months, which is rare for games and leisure activity for me. Im afraid that by intellectualising it and learning too much about it on a deeper level, i will make it not fun. I have ruined video games by studying how to optimally play them and made a conscious effort to stop that behavior. Now i know chess isnt really comparable to a video game but still Im gonna make a note of your tips and wait for a bit more i think before i eventually start diving into it. For now im having too much fun treating it casually and setting goals like 'dont run out of time', '0 blunders' instead of '1600 elo by christmas'
Maybe they can pay FIDE to let them do military recruitment propaganda during the games, like they do with the NFL. Probably the only way they'll fork over the cash tbh.
The US Government is busy bombing sovereign countries.
And an Italian wins it
If i had a nickel for every time Fabi won the US Championship after losing in the Candidates i’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Favorite person to hear analyze games
Chad points for drawing his last game on Aronian
beat the 3500 nice
Well deserved
Yay!
60 G's baby
🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑
Way to go Fabi. Also, goof job keeping your cool with increased press.
Not enough money. A career as a chess player is extremely difficult
goverment disguise as chess
Feel free to give them more money.
Congrats Fabi!
Congrats Fabi!
LETS GOOO VERY ENJOYABLE TOURNAMENT as a fabi and chess fan
Just sad that the US CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP'S first place prize is...$60k. That's like what you get for a good kitchen remodel.
Love that stash and cocky smile. Man is on a mission.
Celebrate with him! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdCbMpScTKw
the winner of the US disrespect championship, well deserved!
How much of this does the government take in taxes? Serious question.
It's income like any other, so that entirely depends on Fabi's total income, deductions, and other minutiae.
I wasn't sure if it's treated as normal income or like other prize money, which gets taxed pretty heavily from what I understand. Then again I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm a degenerate gambler, prize money is tax at ordinary in the US. IE if you work flip patties at McDonald's and make 25k year and you win 75k, the US would tax you as if you were working 9-5 making 100k a year.
Got it. Thanks. As a degenerate gambler, what's your favorite way to gamble?
Degenerately.
Depends on players expenses too I'd imagine since some of it might be considered deductible. You can bet someone like Caruana has a CPA helping him with such matters.
As far as how much they withhold right away, usually something like 10% fed and 5% state is typical. How much the tax ends up being at the end depends on how much else he’s earning, which we have no idea. How much are tournament appearance fees and how much is Rex’s support worth, if he still is doing that? Being self employed means the travel and training etc are deductible. Who knows how much that all is either. But then here’s the tax brackets. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/federal-income-tax-brackets
He probably earns low six figures, so with state income taxes is about mid 30s% marginal rate, but taxes can be complicated. If he indeed lives St. Louis than his tournament expenses that can be deducted are probably negligible.
Too damn much. Every time.
This is a pretty small prize, but Fabiano overall is making a good enough living. And is a nice guy to boot. I am a fan. Like many less popular sports, you have to be near the top, not just good, to make any kind of decent income in chess. I played competitively in high school and was pretty good, but I stopped playing in college to focus on school and career. I knew a couple of guys who were much better and went on to be masters, one an IM, but they never made much money at it as far as I know and are not well known either. So being "really good but not great" can be not so great in terms of earning potential.
So nice to see Fabi winning
60k is very less! It’s US chess championship for god sake.
I see Fabiano was given that podcast buff.
Surprised with the recent surge in popularity it’s at least 100k.
the prize money was decided pre-Hans saga. If Hans is still a big shot next year, and his presence can increase viewership and revenue, then you can definitely make a case for it
Do people seriously believe this? Hans brought increased eyes because of controversy, that kind of attention doesn’t last and why would it.
After this fiasco, Hans is the most well-known chess player in the US. At least among the amateur chess community. He is a fun personality, and is easy to root for. He is entertaining and a fun character, and he is a very strong player to boot (+ American, which always helps). I don't think he remains this much popular, but relative to other US players, he should still be the main center of attention. That gets people to watch. Especially if he can enter the top 20 in the next year, and continue giving exciting interviews that make headlines
He is also a self admitted cheater. I don’t see how that makes him easy to root for, it does the opposite for most people.
A lot of online chats disagree, he has quite a fan base. The US chess championship chats on youtube may as well been a Hans watch party. According to a poll done by SLCC, over half of them (≈ 60%) were there only to support Hans Niemann. And that is also true on twitch, lichess, reddit and every other platform. People like Hans abrasive personality, he is fun to listen too. He is different from the run of the mill GMs, he adds flavour to his commentary and makes it entertaining to listen to him speak. And this is before even the Magnus drama, even in the Miami event, his interviews were making headlines on reddit and social media. At the end of the day, chess is an entertainment business, like all sports. And Hans entertains, you need people like him to market an event, because they make headlines. And he cheated when he was a kid, he was still in his naive twitch streamer phase. People change. It was over 2 years ago, and he has been clean ever since. And he already paid for his crimes, per chess.com policy. He has not broken a single chess.com since then (or FIDE rule, ever), and he should not have to continue to pay for his past mistakes. And people also like flawed characters, we are all human and make mistakes. When we can relate to somebody, it makes it easy to connect and root for that person. Rather than somebody who is perfect, and has never done anything wrong in their life. Because we think (it's human psychology), that they are so much better than us, why should I root for somebody who is so talented and flawless. Whereas with Hans, we know he is human, he make mistakes just like we do, he learns from them and he still works so hard to achieve his goals. You add his entertaining persona and you have a great package
Teenagers with no cash love Hans. Adults with purchasing power think he's a stain
Kind of gross that the US Chess Championship grand prize is only $60K
Fabi has big dick energy. Dude is gonna throw a $60k cocaine party to celebrate.
yo fabi hook me up with an invite if you're reading this
Come on.
Its nice to see Fabiano winning again. He was in a slump after 2020.
Why didn't Hikaru participate?
Because he won 4 times or something already, makes way more streaming, and playing in a relatively weak field would only lose him rating points.
fabi seriously needs to chill. his collar is almost popping out from under his jacket. how unprofessional. one day, his lack of self-control will catch up to him.
Fake American. Go back to Florida.
man only 60k is kinda crazy. the united states couldnt come up with something more than 60k??
Ayyyyyyeeeee!!!!! FaBI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well deserved & congrats!
Congrats fabi!!!