I want to make money and survive purely from blogging. Problogger wannabe! Geeky as that may sound, there is such a thing as a professional chess player. Can you imagine that? Making money and to survive just from chess.

I wanted to interview this Woman Grandmaster from China known Zhang Jilin to find out what it was like. However I was lucky that she was also involved in helping out at the recent chess tournament and I got the opportunity to hear her talk about her life a pro-chess player after we finished our work and had dinner. To me, this was even better than an interview.

Here’s what I’ve found out:-

She travels extensively. She visits at least 60 different places in the world in one year. She is just 21 years old but she picked up the game at the age of 8 and left her hometown to study chess at the age of 10. She only visits her parents in her hometown twice a year.

She receives money from playing in team championship of a chess league. The league also pays her allowances which makes covers most of her cost. Of course if she wins tournaments or games in the leagues this brings in extra money for her.

I played against her 3 years ago in a team tournament in Mid Valley Mega Mall. I lost of course :)

Oh and guys, and she already has a boyfriend.

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