Can I be rich playing chess?

Say if I become really good at chess and even better than kasparov and Anand, win tournament and championship and such, will I become a millionaire?

Yes

Anand got 1.200.000 EUR for winning the world championship 2010. And then there is sponsors and so, i guess you can become very rich playing chess, if you are one of the best.

1.200.000 EUR is 1,7 million dollars.

This is a plague on the internet. Someone who doesn't know diddly about the subject feels the need to chime in anyway.

Dude, you're over thirty and you're not good at chess. There's more chance of you teleporting to Saturn than making a living at chess, no matter what effort you put in.

heck, didn't Anand become number 1 on his 37th birday? I mean 7 years is a lot of time and if all I do is learn chess and keep practicing, you don't think it's possible?

LOL, you think Anand started at 30 then ?

A couple of million dollars these days is far from being rich. You could not even afford the lawyers that rich people need to stay rich. ;-)

So you think Anand started playing good chess, aged thirty?

You don't think that he started playing chess as a wee, small boy..... probably playing expert strength by ten or twelve and master strength a couple of years after?

He came out of nowhere, aged thirty, with a dream and fulfilled it only seven years later?

I'll get your spacesuit.

You can be rich playing chess provided you get your money from elsewhere.

Or if you really want to become the best chess player ever you'd better implant rybka/houdini in your brain and hope they don't catch you.

You took that really well.

Basically this is the situation:

Top 100 GM's in the world - at or approaching millionaire level (especially 2700+ elo)

Other GM's, IM's and FM's - struggle to make a 'living' solely from playing in chess tournaments. Supplement income by writing and coaching. Getting a regular newspaper column, for example, is a god send. Some of these strong GM's may also be seconds for the Top GMs.

Basically, you need to be at least a top 100 player, probably top 20 to be classed as rich (from playing chess).

These guys are clueless, don't listen to them. Just go ahead and grab that Anand!

Why bother about getting rich? Playing chess is its own reward.

Bad chess? No...in that case, rich would be better.

I think I could be better than Anand too. I plan on inventing trying hard and not sharing the secret.

Well, this much is clear:  You may not know much about the topic at hand, but you clearly know Loomis. 

hide yo' kids!

That's a little selfish.   Perhaps I can send you some money?

I sincerely hope that you're joking. You could have a billion years (where you spend all your time, and I mean 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) to study Chess (which is obviously more than 7) and be a highly talented person (which, based on your opinion of the game, seems unlikely at this point) and still not come within 150 ELO points of Vishwanathan Anand.

Anand, like any world Top 5 player, started playing as an infantile boy, had a level of talent which would be unimaginable to even fairly talented players and then put in a load of hard work. For more than 30 years before he became World No. 1. But what I'm trying to emphasize is the level of talent required (whereas all of the people above seem to be focusing on the amount of time required): Anand was good enough to become world-class 15 years after starting Chess; he's more than a profound genius, whereas you've given us nothing to show that you're anything more than average.

Of course, if you had the talent, then yes, you could become as great as Anand.

If you'd started when you were 3-4 years old and studied as hard, both of which are impossible for you at this point.

As to your main OP question, I think that chi-sao's post (#20) basically contains the same answer I would give. If you were better than Kasparov and Anand, you could realistically expect to be earning about $5 million a year from Chess play alone, although of course sponsors, lessons, books, and other activities could take you to around $14 million a year (Kasparov - Anand doesn't make anything like this, because he's a much more purist player).

Does nobody care about being rich in spirit or in contribution to the game?  Sorry, what was I thinking....Bloody capitalists.