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What are the different career options in Chess? The obvious and famous one is being a professional player, and the next best one is that of a chess coach. What are the other careers that involve chess?

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Arun J
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  • Intesting question +1 – ferit Jan 07 '16 at 11:12
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    Which of these is not like the others:

    A. Physician B. Welder C. Chess professional D. Large pizza

    (C) is different - the others can feed a family of 4.

     – Tony Ennis Jan 07 '16 at 17:37
  • Very true @TonyEnnis I was never able to make a decent living playing tournaments. I started working for chess startups, and also as a chess coach. – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:19
  • I know a great chess player in Paris... He does Professional Street Miming to help him not starve .. :) – David Andrei Ned Oct 19 '16 at 12:10

3 Answers3

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My list of answers after much thinking..

Chess careers:

  • Professional players
  • Coaches
  • Preparation and playing partners
  • Arbiters
  • Chess writers
  • Chess photographers
  • Chess officials for federations
  • Chess programmers
  • Chess commentators
  • Chess journalist
  • Managers - for players
  • Columists
  • Chess artists - people who make wooden art work ?
  • chess contractors (or freelancers) - like for chess based movie or startup projects. example: Marketing for a chess startup, research for a movie, etc.

UPDATES based on suggestions:

  • Chess composer
  • Tournament director
  • Staffs for chess related organization, federation, etc. -- which can actually be a career, than a mere stream of income.

Interesting observations: Most of the suggestions in this list can't stand out alone as a career, but would need the support of other projects to make a decent living.

Comments are welcome. I'll update this thread based on your feedback/suggestion

Arun J
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  • Tournament Director. – Jeff Y Jan 07 '16 at 10:54
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    The bar for what can be a "career" seems to be very low; you couldn't make a living from most of these and would need to combine them with an actual job, or with others from the list. – RemcoGerlich Jan 07 '16 at 10:56
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    +1 @RemcoGerlich I think this too too wide. For example, chess artists? Any professional artist can also do it. – SmallChess Jan 07 '16 at 11:03
  • There are people in that area trying to make a living ( e.g. http://www.chess-art.eu/catalog/ ) but calling that a career is going a bit far. – RemcoGerlich Jan 07 '16 at 11:23
  • FIDE and national chess organisations officials? – GloriaVictis Jan 07 '16 at 12:00
  • I guess it depends on what you consider to be a "career" - if a "career" is something that occupies the majority of your time and generates your main income, then the only ones in this list that I think are plausible would be as a chess journalist/writer, or as an employee (e.g., office staff and officials) of one of the federations. For any of the others in this list (aside from being a professional player, which only a few can do), I can't see many good ways to rely on chess as one's main source of income. – patbarron Jan 07 '16 at 16:13
  • It was a very long time before I realized that tournament directors (USCF) and arbiters (FIDE) are actually paid, at least in large tournaments - I always thought they were just volunteers. ;-) – patbarron Jan 07 '16 at 16:13
  • Problem composer – user58697 Jan 07 '16 at 18:44
  • @JeffY Is tournament director the same as arbiter ? – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:20
  • @RemcoGerlich Good observation! – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:21
  • @StudentT I couldn't find another word for people who make a living making beautiful chess sets. (Wooden, metal ones) – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:21
  • @patbarron Thanks for your comment! It makes perfect sense. Is there another way to word the question ? hm.. x Ways people make money in chess :P :) – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:24
  • Problem composer! Yes, I worked on one, for a chess training site. @user58697 – Arun J Jan 10 '16 at 17:25
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    Is there any professionnal chess composer ? Even the best and most active ones don't make much money out of their composition (if any) afaik... – Evargalo Nov 07 '17 at 14:54
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    Missing on the list is a category that might be the most numerous: chess hustlers in parks. – Evargalo Nov 07 '17 at 14:58
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Chess software programmers is missing in the list. I can give you the following names (google them if you want to know more):

  • Larry Kaufman
  • Mark Lefler
  • Mark Uniacke
  • Robert Hyatt
SmallChess
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Chess photographer is popular these days, but not a full-time career.
Operator of digital boards (think Lennart Ootes)
(Selling chess books, but it's debatable)

Baljej
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