Monthly edition
The state of chess ratings, July 2026
The pools disagreed in July 2026: some medians rose while others fell. That is the shape a single overall number would hide completely, and the reason this edition reports each pool separately rather than averaging them into one figure.
This edition was rebuilt from published records rather than measured here: Lichess’s own statistics page as the Internet Archive captured it, and FIDE’s monthly list. This site began taking its own readings in August 2026. Chess.com publishes no distribution and has no archived one, so its pools are absent from this month rather than estimated.
What moved
- FIDE Blitz -25 1,675 → 1,650
- Lichess Bullet +25 1,550 → 1,575
| Pool | Where each rating sits | Rated players | Bottom 10% | Median | Top 10% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIDE | Blitz | 118,995 | 1,450 | 1,650 | 2,025 |
| FIDE | Rapid | 197,947 | 1,425 | 1,625 | 1,950 |
| FIDE | Classical | 220,700 | 1,450 | 1,700 | 2,025 |
| Lichess | Blitz | 656,262 | 975 | 1,475 | 2,000 |
| Lichess | Bullet | 338,608 | 1,000 | 1,575 | 2,175 |
| Lichess | Classical | 37,978 | 1,075 | 1,525 | 1,925 |
| Lichess | Rapid | 459,242 | 875 | 1,400 | 1,900 |
Measured 2026-07-01.