Who Has Won The Most Money In Chess History?

The highest-earning chess players throughout history. We collected data from 1851 to now and here are the results! How do Kasparov, Carlsen, Fischer, Anand and Hikaru compare in this chess timeline of prizewinners?

For a full analysis, including a look at inflation, the biggest prize matches and tournaments, and much more, read our article here:

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219 Comments

  1. Hikaru twitch donations easily makes him a trillionare

  2. Hikaru barely sliding in at the end there haha

  3. Probly not counting Twitch money for Hikaru

  4. I feel so sad that these genius players are paid so less compared to those NBA athletes!

  5. well, this is money earned through "standard" tournament prizes, not including ads or sponsors with the "internet age", so don't confuse yourself people. Naka prolly tops them all, you can ask him how much he's getting through dono, ads and sponsorships

  6. Total Money won by all chess champions 88 Million , Conor Mcgregor got 100 million for this fight against Floyd

  7. tal was drunk, bwyw Indian pride Anand

  8. Well bobby Fischer in 1992 won 5 million dollars which in today's term it would be near 22 million dollars and he was the main man who changed chess financially so bobby Fischer made the most amount of 💰 despite his short carrer

  9. This is only about chess tournaments right? Streaming eranings and stuff like that don't count?

  10. The beat goes hard around 0:24 as if Steinitz was straight balling with his 3500 bucks

  11. just for reference, $10k in 1900 dollars is over $300k today

  12. bruh how tf did deep blue make it here 💀💀💀

  13. 5 yrs later who knows fabi, hikaru and aronian might make it to the top.

  14. When a man is still top 20 at this age, no wonder he is the top earning chess player of all time.

  15. FYI soviet champions had received about 12-40% of their winnings. The rest was taken by soviet chess federation.

  16. Are these adjusted for inflation? I am sure 20000 USD by Lasker will be like a few million at least in today's prices.

  17. Pretty sure Vishy made even more than others if you count endorsements too, with billion people at his back he is ideal for endorsements and stuff and he still stays relevent if you ask me

  18. Hikaru is like the richest chess player and his name isn’t on the list.
    Although yes most of his earnings are not exactly won from championships

  19. Mbappe's salary more than every chess champion winnings combined

  20. So did the prizes increase due to Cold War

  21. A name that is not in the list but YouTube is filled with his videos & that is the magician from Riga Mikhail Tal

  22. Where is Mikhail Tal? He played for free?

  23. thanks for doing this vid, nice presentation and useful info

  24. Lets be honest the spasky fischer doesnt really count

  25. I think Hikaru with youtube and twitch etc earn more than 2 mil

  26. After being a Indian game . From starting – 2000 no Indian 😔

  27. And it's crazy that Steinitz died penniless.

  28. I got a add a about chess and it's your game lol

  29. I'd like to see Ann Crammling show up on this list.

  30. Hello Everyone..These are just prize money..not other incomes

  31. Vishy could have won double this money, If he was lucky…here's why-:
    Anand has been sort of unlucky that his career has been overshadowed by the reigns of the two greatest world champions of all time, Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen.

    If fate had wanted it otherwise, Anand could have been world champion for nearly two decades. That’s the caliber of player he is.

    Anand and Vladimir Kramnik were the foremost challengers to Kasparov’s hegemony in the mid-90s. Kramnik was very strong too, but Anand was usually slightly ahead.

    Anand qualified for the 1995 PCA world championship match against Kasparov, which was played in New York. After eight draws, the Indian even went ahead by drawing first blood in game 9. But then the «monster with a thousand eyes» immediately struck back, winning four of the next five games. Kasparov was at the height of his powers, and he was simply too strong.

    As a sidenote, Anand lost the 1998 FIDE world championship match against Karpov. But it was a very short 6-game match that Karpov eventually decided by winning two rapid games. In my opinion, Anand was already a superior player to Karpov in the late 90s. I chalk his loss in that match up to nerves and coincidences.
    He did, however, win the 2000 FIDE world championship, which was played in a cup format, convincingly, exploiting the fact that Kasparov was absent from all official FIDE events.
    In the early 2000s, Kasparov’s might was gradually waning. Meanwhile, Anand was putting up an impressive string of tournament victories, such as his consecutive wins at Wijk aan Zee in 2003 and 2004. When Kasparov retired in 2005, Anand had possibly surpassed him in playing strength already. In any case, Anand became the highest rated active player in the world for the first time, a position he held on and off until 2011, when Magnus Carlsen catapulted ahead of everyone else.

    In 2006, the world championship title had finally been reunified, with Kramnik as champion. FIDE put the title up for grabs in a tournament in Mexico in 2007, which Anand won by a full point, thus becoming the officially recognized champion.

    Anand further cemented his claim to the title by winning a world championship match against the lineal champion, Kramnik, in 2008.
    He was now the undisputed world champion and world number one on FIDE’s rating list. He defended his title in further matches against Veselin Topalov in 2010 and Boris Gelfand in 2012.
    Even though Carlsen has been the dominant force in the last decade, Anand continues to amaze even at the age of 50. He won the official rapid world championship only two years ago, adding that to a long list of unofficial world titles he’s won at faster time controls
    We can only imagine what Anand’s career would have looked like if he didn’t have to face the unstoppable forces of Kasparov and Carlsen for the majority of his best years. Without them, he would have been the strongest player in the world from around 1995 to 2012.

    In my book, Anand is easily among the top ten players of all time. Even with the incredibly tough competition he has faced, he has managed to rack up a formidable collection of world championship titles and tournament wins.

    Anand’s longevity is also legendary. He has consistently been a top player for a period of 30 years. Since 1991, he hasn’t fallen out of the top 15 even once. That kind of consistency has few parallels in chess history.

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