THERE’S NO MATCH FOR TODAY’S PRIZE $
By ANDY SOLTIS
NY Post
January 6, 2008 — CHESS THE price of championship chess is going up.
In October, Vishwanathan Anand will defend his title against Vladimir Kramnik in Germany, and each player will earn about $1 million, since they agreed to split the money.
The winner will defend his title against the survivor of a Gata Kamsky-Veselin Topalov match also planned for 2008. Bulgarian sponsors have offered $2 million to host that match, but Kamsky will unlikely be willing to play in Topalov’s homeland, where the Sofia GM is a national hero.
Bear in mind that when Bobby Fischer became the champ in 1972, he received what was considered a sky-high prize of $160,000.
The record prize fund for a chess match is the $3 million for the 1990 Anatoly Karpov-Garry Kasparov match – but prize funds have been sinking faster than the value of a subprime mortgage.
Since 1990, the most anyone has earned from a match is the $1.33 million pocketed by Kramnik in 2000, when he dethroned Kasparov. The total prize fund for the Kramnik-Topalov match that reunified the championship title in 2006 was only $1million.
Still, that’s a long way from the first world championship match, held at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street back in 1886. Wilhelm Steinitz got $2,000 – and loser Mikhail Tchigorin went home to Russia with nothing.
Source: NY Post
Big money ruins chess.
Nominal values don’t mean a lot: inflation applies.
Soltis wrote: {the first world championship match, held at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street back in 1886. Wilhelm Steinitz got $2,000 – and loser Mikhail Tchigorin went home to Russia with nothing.
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It is a good thing that Tchigorin went home with no prize money, considering that Steinitz opponent in 1886 was Zuckertort.
GeneM
Given inflation, $160,000 in 1972 would be around $770,000 today. Google “Inflation Calculator” to find applets for making this computation. Thus, Fischer did take home a pretty good bundle of cash.
Brad Hoehne
This reporter forget the highest money chess match ever, Fischer vs Spassky 1992! 5 million if my memory is correct.