it has been like opening a new magazine everyday. look forward to the new issue to hit the news stands.
Many tournaments have appearance fees. Sadly for women, they are meager. In addition, there are prize rewards in chess events for winning, second, third etc, even at the amateur level. Many professional players also take on coaching and teaching roles, writing books or composing DVDs, etc. The top five players in the world can easily make hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year if you get to play in the world championship. Outside of this very elite, http://chess.liverating.org/ it is a humble living, something like $100k a year if you work hard. On the other hand, you get to travel the world, eat great food, make lots of friends, and play chess! Irina probably makes something like $50k/Yr playing chess, and if she augments it with coaching, maybe double that. Consider the struggle though. There are hundreds of thousands of Phd's around the world. On the contrary, there are maybe 1000 Grandmasters in the entire world. Finally, you are through at the age of about 40. It is very much a young persons game. Very very very few players can stay in the top 10 after about 45. The decline is severe and fast. Don't try this at home.