Chess Coaching and its Disadvantages
The thing I noticed that is coaching (Chess Coaching or mostly sports-related coaching) is not a very high profile acceptable field in Indian society. Even if you are earning 2-4x than a normal day job, people will give more priority and importance to someone who is doing a traditional 9-5 job.
Building a chess academy is possible but that is a business and this article is all about Freelance Chess Coaches.
This is why we see many IMs and GMs in India choose to have a secure government job. Although they do have to go for the job when they are not playing. As per my knowledge starting monthly salary ranges between $400-700 for IMs and $700-1000 for GMs. (In hand salary is less) If they decide to do chess coaching, they just have to do it for 15-20 hours to get an amount equivalent to their salary.
The following are the major issues with Freelance chess coaching
Struggle of getting new students - This is a common complaint of chess coaches. However, for titled players, this is not a bigger issue. I and most of my friends who are FMs and GMs get a lot of inquiries from offline events, lichess, and chess com.
Social Status - As I mentioned in the intro, there is no social status for coaches. Let’s say if you are making $5k from a day job you will get a lot of respect and no one is judging you. If you make $5k with chess coaching, most of them won’t believe that chess coaching pays well and second the status is quite low.
No progress - In a job or in business, you have a lot of growth opportunities. You can make 20-30% YoY growth by learning new skills or making new strategies in Business.?
(Example - When I started my blog, I hadn’t made a penny for the first 18 months. Then I made $17.5 in a month and within the next couple of months, it went to $500. If I compared it with chess coaching, coaches are charging the same amount or maybe a 10-15% increase in the last 5 years)
Time-Consuming - You always have to deal with the student’s parents, the student’s progress, etc. This requires extra time. Even if you are teaching for 1 hour, it takes 15-30 minutes extra to get ready, prepare for it, etc. Whatever you are charging for 1 hour is actually taking your 1.5x-1.7x time.
Not changing anyone’s life - There always will be a limitation for chess as it is not life-changing. For e.g., if you teach some business skills to someone, the potential to make money is multifold. This is not the case with chess coaching. It’s a hobby game for 99% of people and for the hobby, no one spends crazy amounts.?
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Coaching is a field that is not a business nor a professional consultancy. We cannot compare it with professionals like Doctors, CA, CFA, etc.
This is why I always limit the number of students and explore other sources from which I can make a stable and growing business.
If 2024 goes well for me in other projects, I am going to stop chess coaching or do it for fun.
I would be happy to understand the thoughts of different chess coaches. If you are a chess coach and reading this article, please do comment.
If you have any chess-related questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]
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