Chess champion can live on his bonus
24/02/2011 02:50:06 PM (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – Chess Grand Master Le Quang Liem successfully defended his championship at the Russian International Chess Festival Aeroflot Open and received Eur 16,166.
This is a huge amount of money for Vietnamese athletes but Liem is familiar to such awards.
Last year, Liem also won the Aeroflot championship and took Eur 21,000. At the Moscow Open tournament, he earned Eur 8000 for a bronze medal. The second place at the Dortmund tournament in Germany secured him an additional Eur 7000. In addition, he received $9500 or the championship of the chess tournament to commemorate the former Chairman of FIDE, Mr. Florencio Campomanes in the Philippines and $4000 from the national chess championship.
In early 2011, Liem ranked fourth at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in the Netherlands, earning $4000.
In the future, Liem may become the richest athlete in Vietnam who earns money from his career because many foreign clubs have invited Liem to play for them.
Liem agreed to play for Bremen Club (Germany) in March, Evry Grand Roque (France) in April, Qingdao Yucai (China) in June. He will earn from $300-700 for each winning game.
Liem is a typical example of Vietnamese sportsmen who can live on their career.
After brilliantly defending his title at the Aeroflot Open 2011 in Russia last week, grandmaster Le Quang Liem has become a prominent figure in a long-term plan of Vietnam to propel him to the world’s top spot in the future.
Ranking 79th in the world with an Elo rating of 2,664 in the January’s table, the 20-year-old player is estimated to have lifted himself up to an Elo of 2,689 after clinching the title and may surge to the top 40 at this month’s table, to be released soon.
Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn
This shows that it is possible to earn decent money as a professional chess player without being in the top ten. However, to do so one has to be willing to travel extensively, and spend long periods of time in foreign countries (e.g. playing in the German Bundesliga or Russian league). I suspect that many of our top young N. American players are not too keen on that.
Good for him.
Mike Magnan