What constitutes an amateur in chess?

Recently I was rereading The Amateur's Mind by Silman, and in the book he refers to players with very high ratings such as 2100 and 2150 as "amateurs". This was in 1999 and he makes references to tournament play, so I assume that it's USCF rating. What I don't get is that 2150 is very close to master (I understand there's a pretty big gap for the rating difference, but still), and yet he refers to that player as an amateur. What constitutes an amateur in chess? Is it a beginner? Time spent playing chess? Anyone who is not a master? Did the definition of amateur change since then? If anyone could clarify these questions it would be welcome.

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I remember reading that paragraph and thinking the exact same thing. 2100 and 2150 are very very far away from Im or GM. so they're considered amateur by that standard. Just how 2100 consider 1200 as amateur. And 1200 consider 300 as amateur. It's all relative.

The most general definition of a professional is somebody who is good enough at a craft to earn sufficient money from said craft to earn a living.

And an amateur is anyone who isnt a professional.

The only option I can see for a player with Fide ELO 2150 to make money is offering training for beginners. Not sure how much money is in that, specifically if there is enough money that you dont need to do something else, too.

I assume at 2150 you can win local tournaments for money? There are a couple of weekly tournaments near my area with a ~$300 prize pool, and $60-80 for the winner. At 2150 you might not win higher level tournaments outright but that elo would be in the top 5 players rating-wise at that tournament

Well, amateur is a broad term, but in some very strict sense, some people say that only 2 700+ rated player or top 30 player is a chess professional. It is a bit much form my point of view, but certainly someone rated around 2 200 is an amateur in a sense that he doesn't make a living thanks to his tournament winnings. Perhaps he will win some prize money here and there, but he can't really be a full time professional.

He would starve, unless he has some other income.

For instance if you take people that compete in marathon, someone who has a personal best of 2:50 is amazing compared to most recreational runners (and he might win some local race), but compared to world record holders, or those who challenge that type of people, he is generally considered an amateur, as his time is more than 45 minutes worse than that of a world record holder.

The thing is that some people compare the world amateur with a beginner or a lower rated player, and these 2 are not really the same. Even most of chess masters can't sustain themselves by just playing.

Do you play for love or for money?

That's true, but I've seen that people just make 2200 the magical cutoff line between amateur and master, which seems really weird considering in the book there is a 2175 player as an amateur (1 or 2 good tournaments could carry him over master)

I thought in chess an amateur is anyone who is untitled & below 2200 OTB, and anyone below 1000 is considered a "patzer" (although that last one probably should be removed and just grouped in with amateur)

Even most masters are amateurs in a sense that they don't really have chess tournaments as their main source of income.

They are great players realistically, but chess is not football (the one you call soccer), where you have thousands of players who earn hundreds of thousands to tens of millions per year.

Someone who is ranked 100. in the world of chess perhaps can make a living by only playing tournaments, but I've seen even top 100 players advertise chess lessons in their profiles, so ... even they need to supplement their income sometimes.

even this is relative. 2100 fide is usually strong enough to have multiple IM scalps and even a few GM scalps they are proud of, if they played in enough big events. They are also a threat to FMs who are not slouches.

12. Exactly, that's just my take on it. But there's others too.

"What constitutes an amateur"

People who play like I do 💀

Anyone whose primary income isn't through chess.

2150 FIDE isn't particularly high and these players are often just club players same as us. On my day I could beat one. 2150 USCF is weaker than that.

Multiple IM scalps is maybe a bit excessive unless you include drawing with white!

Bit off topic but do piece colors really matter that much at high levels? Two a skilled player could draw each other, is it harder with one color than with another?

At super gm levels. Like Magnus level, yes since white is better to start with since he technically has an extra tempo. Black is considered harder to play for a win or even a draw for that matter. Just look up Armageddon rules

I think they should matter more at a high level. At a lower level people like me win quite a lot with black because I play both more positionally and more tactically with black. With white, I like to keep the draw in hand but sometimes pursue incorrect escapades. At my best I can play at about 2200 FIDE over the board and my experience of IMs and GMs is that they are tactically excellent, so with white I can maybe keep things on an even keel better.

My last league game before our chess club folded at the start of Covid (not due to Covid and we have another club now) I was playing a guy who was 220 ECF. Nowadays, we use the Continental system of grading or rating. 220 is about 2350 FIDE, not really IM strength. One and a half hours each, which is slightly fast. I outplayed him with black and had a winning position in the late middle game but he had a little more time than me. About 7 minutes to my 3 or 4 and he laid a trap. In a slower game I would have seen it. If I'd been playing very well I'd have seen it so I could have won but I lost. All his tournament experience at winning local Opens came out.

Quite seriously, an IM is usually better than that. That's why they are IMs and not 2350 FIDE.

To clarify, there is a few IMs at 2350 but they mainly start at about 2450. There's a big leap between 2350 into the more rarified atmosphere of titled players. A CM is not a titled player.