The 3 grandmasters who made more than 500k in 2022
Most people can’t even imagine how much money elite chess players earn – only from tournament prizes let alone streaming and other business activities – per year but Nathaniel Green published an article on chesscom revealing that 3 GMs made more than 500k in 2022, and 17 GMs between $100-450k with only one woman on this list.
It’s not hard to imagine that No.1 on this list is Magnus Carlsen. The winner of the Champions Chess Tour, Norway Chess, and both the World Rapid and Blitz Championships earned nearly $560k in major tournament prizes throughout 2022. With a $100 million libel lawsuit on his back by Hans Niemann, and after withdrawing from the World Championship title with a $2M prize fund though, Magnus might find himself in an uncomfortable financial position.
Second on the list and very close to Magnus is Wesley So who brought in just over $540,000 worth of prize money in 2022 after getting the first prize at Chesscom Global Championship worth of $200,000.
Third but for sure not least is the professional streamer and superstar Hikaru Nakamura, who ended the year with a bit more than $515k. Six months ago though El Pais has published an article claiming that Nakamura is the world’s wealthiest chess player with a an estimated fortune somewhere around $50 million!
Moving lower on the list there are 17 more GMs who earned more than 100k, with GM Tan Zhongyi being the only woman, and 17-year-old Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu being the youngest on the list. Check them out:
Ian Nepomniachtchi – $429,512
Alireza Firouzja – $358,542
Jan-Krzysztof Duda – $296,178
Fabiano Caruana – $263,810
Levon Aronian – $260,136
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – $234,904
Anish Giri – $213,061
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – $201,834
Ding Liren – $175,540
Richard Rapport – $166,938
Le Quang Liem – $134,500
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu – $129,000
Nihal Sarin – $118,802
Dmitry Andreikin – $112,861
Vladimir Fedoseev - $109,405
Leinier Dominguez – $109,391
Tan Zhongyi – $103,753
Read the original article here
