Following the Money Trail for the World\'s Best Players

Following the Money Trail for the World’s Best Players

There is a simple way to determine the No. 1 player in the world: the World Chess Federation rates and ranks the competitors. It is not so easy trying to figure out the game’s best-paid player.

Peter Zhdanov recently tried to get a definitive answer.

Zhdanov, a proficient player who manages the career of his wife, Natalia Pogonina (No. 25 among women), recently outlined the problems in an article for the Chessbase News Web site.

Tournament prize money is easy to figure out, he said. But players have other sources of income that they do not publicly disclose, including how much they are paid for participating in professional leagues or what they earn in appearance fees just for showing up at a tournament.

According to Zhdanov’s research, Viswanathan Anand of India, the world champion, was the top earner last year, making about $2 million. He made most of that â€" $1.5 million â€" in the world championship match against Boris Gelfand. Gelfand himself took home about $1.1 million in 2012, Zhdanov said, all but $100,000 of that from the title match.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway is the top-ranked player, but Zhdanov estimated his earnings at just $480,000, a figure that is almost certainly too low. He was followed by Levon Aronian of Armenia with $330,000 and Sergey Karjakin of Russia with $300,000.

In an e-mail, Pogonina said that while chess earnings were modest compared with those of professional athletes, “If one compares the earning of college professors/teachers/engineers to chess players, then the situation doesn’t look that bad.”

Gibraltar Festival

Nikita Vitiugov of Russia won the 2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival last week, defeating the English grandmaster Nigel Short in a playoff.

Short, who is ranked No. 59 in the world, had to rally to reach the playoffs after he was upset in Round 2 by Ismael Teran Alvarez of Spain, who is ranked No. 2,205.

In the top diagram, Short was already in trouble, but he made the situation worse by opening the position with 22 ... ef5. The game went 23 Nf5 f6 24 ef6 Bf5 25 Bf4 Bd6 26 Bd6 Rd6 27 Qf5 g6 28 Qf4 Qd8 29 f7 Rf8 30 Ng7 g5 31 Qg3 Ka7 32 Re1, and Short resigned because he could not avoid large material losses.

Short was not the only top player to run into trouble early on. Gata Kamsky, an American who is ranked No. 18, allowed a draw in Round 1 against Andreas Aerni of Switzerland (No. 10,374).

In the bottom diagram, Aerni played 15 a4, threatening 16 a5, so Kamsky replied with 15 ... a6. The game continued 16 a5 ab5 17 ab6 0-0, when Aerni boldly played 18 Bf6. Kamsky had to take the bishop with 18 ... gf6, but after 19 Qg4 Kh8 20 Nd5 f5 21 Qh4 ed5 22 Qf6 Kg8 23 Qg5 Kh8 24 Qf6 Kg8, it was a draw because Kamsky’s king could not escape perpetual check.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 10, 2013, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Following the Money Trail For the World’s Best Players.