One week in the life of a chess professional

Many chess fans wonder how much time Grandmasters spend on chess every day, what they do and how they make the ends meet. As one of my friends put it:

"The idea among average players is that GMs are "above it all" and live in a world of "brilliancies and variations", which does not include all the chores that consume so much time for the rest of us. You know, "If I were a GM I could just study and play chess all day and I wouldn't have to... (insert list of daily chores)". Most players think that they, too, could be GMs if they only had as much time as grandmasters have to study chess, but they have jobs and families and they can usually only find a little time to study or play. I know from conversations with you that some days you don't have any more time for chess than I do! I think most players will be surprised that you don't spend all day, every day, studying variations."

Well, this is a good point and so I would like to shed some light on this subject by keeping a diary for a week and posting it here. One note though: I am not very active on the tournament circuit, so please keep this in mind — not all GMs write articles for periodicals or give lessons. Not all or have their Web sites or sell chess books. Everyone is unique and I am not writing about all GMs here — this is one week in my life.

Monday, 21 January

Tuesday, 22 January

Wednesday, 23 January