At the highest level the lowest was probably ₤5 for Morphy for his match against Harrwitz and Anderssen both in 1858 and $5,000,000 sponsored by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov for the World Championship Tournament organised in 1997.
ECHESSPEDIA
Quotes of the Day
I enjoy it when I see my opponent really suffering when he knows that I’ve outsmarted him
Magnus Carlsen 2012
” The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime.”
Alexander Alekhine
Botvinnik, Korchnoi and Kasparov had to hate the opponent to play successfully. I belong to a different type of chess players. I’m like Keres, Spassky and Portisch. On the board we fight, but in life we get along great.
Anatoly Karpov 2015
I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of Chess
Siegbert Tarrasch
I was pushed out of USSR by the hands of Petrosian and Karpov. But now, after 10 years, Petrosian is not longer alive and Karpov is not longer World Champion, so it seems that everything is in place now.
Viktor Kortchnoi 1986 NIC