World Poker Championship Prize Money
- World Poker Championship Prize Money Winner
- World Poker Championship Prize Money Payout
- World Poker Championship Prize Money Payouts
- World Poker Championship Prize Money Winners
The World Series of Poker® is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $2.99 billion in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet. The $5,000 buy-in Main Event of the World Series of Poker international series wrapped up on Saturday night with the top 4 finishers all taking home more than $1 million in prize money.
Today, the very top chess players in the world can make good livings from the game.
Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, who will play this month’s world chess championship in Russia, made more than $1 million each of the past two years from chess winnings alone.
The other top grandmasters in the world do pretty well, too.
Fabiano Caruana, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Boris Gelfand, and Wesley So can earn up to half a million dollars in tournament winnings each year.
The money in chess has always been concentrated at the top. Throughout the history of competitive chess, the prizes for winning the world championship have dwarfed the earnings from other tournaments.
It remains true today. While Fabiano Caruana won $100,000 in September by winning the 2014 Sinquefield Cup — the strongest chess tournament in human history — the loser of the upcoming world championship match will make five times as much money, even if he doesn’t score a single point.
The world championship has always been king in chess, and its winners have been compensated accordingly.
Here’s a look at the growth of selected world chess championship prize purses throughout history.
1886, Steinitz-Zukertort: £800
Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900)
The prize fund was split evenly. Steinitz won the match +10 -5 =5.
1891, Steinitz-Gunsberg: $3,000
Steinitiz vs Gunsberg in the 1891 match.
Steinitz won the match +6 -4 =9 and took home a $2,000 winner’s share.
1921, Capablanca-Lasker: $25,000
Capablanca vs Lasker in Moscow,1925
Capablanca won the match +4 -0 =10, but only received $12,000 in prize money. Lasker got the other $13,000.
1927, Alekhine-Capablanca: $10,000
Alexander Alekhine, arbiter Dr. Carlos Augusto Querencio and José Raúl Capablanca during World Chess Championship in Buenos Aires, 1927
Alekhine won the match +6 -3 =25, but Capablanca received a $2,000 appearance fee.
1935, Euwe-Alekhine: $10,000
Euwe, after one of the games from the 1935 Alekhine-Euwe match.
Euwe won the match +9 -8 =13 and the $10,000 stake.
1966, Petrosian-Spassky: $2,000
Tigran Petrosian
In this era of Soviet dominance, the world chess championship was an internal affair. Petrosian received just a $2,000 bonus for winning the match.
1972, Fischer-Spassky: $250,000
Bobby Fischer vs Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship match. Image from nsarchive
Bobby Fischer brought unprecedented interest and money to the world chess championship. In addition to the gigantic purse, Fischer demanded — and received — 30 percent of the match’s television rights and gate.
Fischer, of course, won the match +7 -3 =11 and the winner's share of $156,250.
1978, Karpov-Korchnoi: $560,000
Korchnoi vs Karpov in the 1978 World Chess Championship.
Karpov took home $350,000 for winning the match +6 -5 =21.
1990, Kasparov-Karpov: $3 million
Kasparov won the monster $1.875 million winner’s share by going +4 -3 =17 in the match.
1995, Kasparov-Anand: $1.5 million
Vishy Anand.
Kasparov took home a cool million for beating Anand +4 -1 =13 at the top of the world.
2000, Kasparov-Kramnik: $2 million
World Poker Championship Prize Money Winner
Kramnik vs Kasparov in the 2000 World Chess Championship. Via Kramnik.com
Kramnik shocked Kasparov and the world and won $1.33 million for his +2 -0 =13 performance.
2006, Kramnik-Topalov: $1 million
The prize fund was arranged to be split evenly at $500,000 each regardless of result, and appropriately enough, Kramnik won the match on tiebreaks.
2008, Anand-Kramnik: €1.5 million ($1.9 million)
Vishy Anand vs Vladimir Kramnik in the 2008 World Chess Championship match. Image via Wikipedia
Anand claimed the title by going +3 -1 =7, but each player took home the same $950,000 share
2010, Anand-Topalov: €2 million ($2.8 million)
Topalov vs Anand in the 2010 World Chess Championship match. Image via Blogspot
Anand defended his title, going +3 -2 =7, and won the $1.68 million champion’s share.
2012, Anand-Gelfand: $2.55 million
Boris Gelfand vs Vishy Anand in the 2012 World Chess Championship match.
Anand won the match on tiebreaks, receiving $1.53 million. He also was granted a $400,000 bonus from the Indian government.
2013, Carlsen-Anand: $2.5 million
Vishy Anand vs. Magnus Carlsen in the 5th game of the 2013 World Chess Championship match.
Carlsen won the title and $1.5 million by going +3 -0 =7.
2014, Carlsen-Anand: €1 million ($1.25 million)
Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand in the first game.
The winner of the match will receive $750,000, and the loser will take home $500,000.
Let us know what you think of the world championship prize funds in the comments.
The Scariest Chess Moves You've Ever Seen
World Poker Championship Prize Money Payout
The $5,000 buy-in Main Event of the World Series of Poker international series wrapped up on Saturday night with the top 4 finishers all taking home more than $1 million in prize money. With the typical World Series of Poker in Las Vegas postponed this year the action moved online and the World Series of Poker international series Main Event had a total prize pool of $27,559,500.
There were 5,802 buy-ins into the $5,000-entry Main Event. Notable entries included PSG star and Brazilian soccer phenom Neymar Jr. and former heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe.
The final heads-up pairing came down to Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev against Wenling Gao of China. On the final hand of the Main Event, Stoyan Madanzhiev flopped a straight which took down Gao’s pocket aces which is an absolutely brutal way to get knocked out heads-up. Looking down and seeing AA you think you are absolutely money and then your opponent flops a straight and poof, you’re gone.
For his second-place finish, Wenling Gao won $2.7 million. Not bad. Stoyan Madanzhiev took home a record $3.9 million for first place, the ‘largest prize in online poker history’. American Tyler Rueger won $1.9 million for 3rd place and New Zealand’s Thomas Ward brought home $1.35 million for his 4th place finish.
‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth busted in 750th right before the money bubble. In total, 728 spots were paid out across the $27,559,500 prize pool. There were three Americans at the final table with the other two, Tyler Cornell and Sam Taylor, finishing 8th and 9th respectively for $328,305 and $230,395.
In the final hand, 2nd place finisher Wenling Gao got all his chips in with AcAd only to see her opponent (yes, her) call with 7d6h. At that moment he had his opponent completely dominated. But Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev miraculously flopped a 7-high straight and held on to win 1st place.
According to ESPN’s Chalk, some American participants moved internationally for this event which also allowed them to buy-in multiple times in the early stages:
The international series was hosted on GGPoker.com after the coronavirus pandemic forced the traditional World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas to be postponed. There were 5,802 entries into the $5,000 buy-in main event, creating a $27.6 million prize pool, the largest in online poker history.
World Poker Championship Prize Money Payouts
Players were allowed to buy in three times during the early rounds of the main event and were required to be physically located in a jurisdiction that allowed online poker. Tournament officials said some American participants relocated to Mexico or Canada to take part in the tournament.
The main event was narrowed to 38 players entering Saturday’s final round. American Bryan Piccioli had the chip lead entering the final round but finished 23rd.
It’s certainly a bummer not having the usual World Series of Poker footage on ESPN this year. It’s been a staple of Summer television for most of my life and watching these tournaments unfold online just doesn’t offer even a fraction of the same entertainment for me.
World Poker Championship Prize Money Winners
The official in-person 2020 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas hasn’t been rescheduled yet and with this year waning down they’re running out of time. Next year seems likely (to me) at this point.
For more on this largest win in online poker history, you can head on over to ESPN’s Chalk.