Guides
12 pieces about what chess ratings actually mean. Every number in them is counted from the same data the tool uses, and every one says what it cannot tell you.
- What is a good chess rating? Short answer: almost certainly better than you think. "Good" only means anything next to the people you are being measured against, so here is the whole population, counted.
- Lichess vs Chess.com ratings, explained The same player is usually rated higher on Lichess than on Chess.com. Neither site is wrong — they are two separate populations with two separate starting points.
- How chess ratings actually work Elo, Glicko-2, and the number next to your rating that most sites never show you.
- Provisional ratings explained Why your new rating jumps around, and when it stops.
- Chess rating distribution What the whole rated population actually looks like, drawn from the same data this site uses to work out your standing.
- Online ratings vs FIDE, explained Why your Lichess or Chess.com number is not your FIDE number, and why this site will not guess one for you.
- What does an online rating say about your FIDE rating? We measured it on ten thousand titled players. The honest answer is: less than you would like.
- What rating each chess title means Where GMs, IMs, FMs and CMs actually sit — counted from FIDE’s own list, not from the title regulations.
- Average chess rating by age What 218,354 active FIDE-rated players look like, grouped by how old they are.
- How many rated chess players are there? The pools we can count, and the one nobody publishes.
- Is chess rating inflation real? We counted fourteen years of FIDE rating lists instead of citing anyone. Ratings are not inflating. They are very slightly deflating.
- How long does it take to reach 1500? We read 570 real Lichess rating histories. About three weeks of actual playing, spread over six months of calendar — and half the players never had to make the climb at all.