Chess Ratings Explained: What Beginners Should Know
Hiroki Obara · Developer
Next to a chess player’s name you often see a number like 1650 or 2100. That is the player’s rating, a measure of playing strength worked out from game results.
According to FIDE’s article Anniversary of Arpad Elo, the system was devised by Arpad Elo, a physicist and chess master. The US Chess Federation first used it in 1960, and FIDE officially adopted it in 1970, which is why chess ratings are often called Elo ratings. The same article says FIDE published one rating list a year from 1971 to 1980, and now publishes one every month.
This post follows the current FIDE rules, FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024 in the FIDE Handbook, to show how the number moves.
The gap between two ratings
What matters is less the number itself than the difference between two players’ numbers. The FIDE regulations include a table that turns a rating difference D into a scoring probability PD: the score a player is expected to make in one game. A win counts as 1, a draw as 0.5 and a loss as 0. The ways a game can end in a draw are in Draws in Chess.
A few rows from that table:
| Rating difference | Higher-rated player | Lower-rated player |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | 0.50 | 0.50 |
| 99 to 106 | 0.64 | 0.36 |
| 198 to 206 | 0.76 | 0.24 |
| 392 to 411 | 0.92 | 0.08 |
| over 735 | 1.0 | 0.00 |
With a gap of about 100 points, the higher-rated player is expected to score 0.64 points a game on average. The wider the gap, the closer that gets to 1.
Since 1 October 2025, for players rated below 2650, a difference of more than 400 points is counted as 400. For players rated 2650 and above, the actual difference is used.
How much one game moves your rating
For each game you take your score minus the expected score, add these up, and multiply by a factor called K. That is the rating change for the period, rounded to a whole number.
Say a player rated 1600, with K = 20, plays one game against someone rated 1700. The gap is 100 points, so the 1600 player’s expected score is 0.36.
- Win: (1 − 0.36) × 20 = 12.8, so the rating goes up 13.
- Draw: (0.5 − 0.36) × 20 = 2.8, up 3.
- Loss: (0 − 0.36) × 20 = −7.2, down 7.
From the 1700 player’s side the expected score is 0.64: a win gains 7, a draw loses 3 and a loss costs 13. A draw with a stronger opponent gains points, and a draw with a weaker one loses them.
In a game between 1500 and 2000, the 500-point gap is counted as 400, so the 1500 player’s expected score is 0.08. With K = 20, the 1500 player gains 18 for a win and loses only 2 for a loss.
The K-factor
K sets how far a single result moves the rating. The FIDE regulations give these values:
- K = 40 for a player new to the list, until they have completed events with at least 30 games.
- K = 20 while the rating stays under 2400.
- K = 10 once the published rating has reached 2400. It stays at 10 even if the rating later drops below 2400.
- K = 40 for all players until the end of the year of their 18th birthday, as long as the rating is under 2300.
If the number of games in a rating period times K would exceed 700, K is cut to the largest whole number that keeps K × games at 700 or below.
Your first rating
Games against rated opponents count even before you have a rating. Under the FIDE regulations, a first rating is published once it is based on at least 5 games against rated opponents. They do not have to come from one tournament: results from consecutive rating periods of up to 26 months are pooled.
The calculation adds two imaginary opponents rated 1800, each counted as a draw. Your first rating is the average rating of your opponents plus a difference worked out from your percentage score. If you score zero in your first event, that event is ignored.
A first rating must be at least 1400, and the maximum is 2200. Players whose rating drops below 1400 are shown as unrated on the next list. A player who plays no rated games for a year is listed as inactive.
Which games count
A standard FIDE rating covers slow games. Assuming a game lasts 60 moves, each player must have at least:
- 120 minutes if either player is rated 2400 or more
- 90 minutes if either player is rated 1800 or more
- 60 minutes if both are rated below 1800
Faster games are covered by separate rules, the FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations. A rapid game gives each player more than 10 but less than 60 minutes, and a blitz game more than 3 but no more than 10 minutes. Rapid and blitz rating lists also come out on the first day of each month.
Online ratings
Online playing sites keep their own ratings. The Lichess FAQ, for example, says Lichess uses the Glicko-2 method developed by Mark Glickman, and that a new player starts at 1500. Early on, a rating can move by several hundred points at a time.
The same page says it is best not to treat ratings as absolute numbers or compare them with other organisations. Each has a different pool of players and a different rating method, and both change the size of the numbers. The difference between players within one pool is what helps estimate who will win.
Within FIDE, too, standard, rapid and blitz are separate numbers. A figure such as 1500 means more once you know which organisation and which time control it comes from.
Sources
- FIDE, “FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024”, FIDE Handbook
- FIDE, “FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024”, FIDE Handbook
- FIDE, “Anniversary of Arpad Elo: rating system that changed chess world”
- Lichess, “Frequently Asked Questions”
Practising with Chess365
Chess365 is a checkmate puzzle app with 1,000 puzzles each of mate in 2, 3, 4 and 5. You always play White, you can make any legal move, and Black replies automatically. No account is needed, your records stay on your device, and the stats screen shows puzzles solved and times for each level.
The home screen has a “Daily Challenge” and a streak. All the puzzles are free, and a one-time “Remove Ads” purchase removes the ads. How the pieces move is in Chess Rules for Beginners, and how to use the app is in Getting Started with Chess365.
