Rating Comparisons
One of the most common questions in the chess world is how your rating compares to other measurements. For example: how does your rating on Chess.com compare with your rating on lichess.org? Others wonder how their online rating would compare to an over the board (OTB) rating. How does Chess.com blitz rating map to the USCF rating system? How does your lichess.org rapid rating compare to FIDE ratings?
We had these same questions. We have a combination of multiple sources to create these comparisons. If you’d like to help expand our rating database, we have a rating survey below. The results are updated regularly, so make sure to subscribe to get site updates.
Not sure what a chess rating is? Check out our post: Chess Ratings – All You Need to Know in 2020.
Details on math: Rating Comparisons Explained.
Chess.com Rating vs FIDE and USCF
Last Updated: 11/18/2020
The Chess.com ratings map pretty closely to USCF ratings overall. You can use it generally as a quick mapping to your USCF rating. USCF ratings start at 100 and the Chess.com equivalent is around 500. The gap shrinks up until the breakeven range of 1600-1650. Chess.com ratings become slightly higher again as one’s rating increases. FIDE ratings follow a similar distribution to the USCF ratings. In the past, we have seen Chess.com ratings more similar to OTB ratings, and due to fewer OTB events in 2020, Chess.com ratings may be drifting a bit higher.
Typical bullet ratings on Chess.com are slightly lower than blitz ratings. The recent +150 increase that Chess.com employed helped bring these ratings closer together. Rapid ratings start higher than blitz ratings with a breakeven point around 1650 when blitz ratings begin to be higher. This table also accounts for the change that Chess.com made to move 10+0 games to the rapid category. See the full data below.
Reading the Table
- Find Chess.com blitz rating in the first column
- All other ratings are mapped to Chess.com blitz
- The (+/-) values represent one standard deviation in predicted rating
| Chess.com Blitz | Chess.com Bullet (+/- 185) | Chess.com Rapid (+/- 155) | USCF (+/- 260) | FIDE (+/- 150) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | 510 | 625 | 105 | |
| 600 | 575 | 770 | 255 | |
| 700 | 670 | 840 | 400 | |
| 800 | 755 | 950 | 495 | |
| 900 | 835 | 1045 | 635 | |
| 1000 | 930 | 1120 | 800 | |
| 1100 | 1035 | 1210 | 960 | 1116 |
| 1150 | 1095 | 1260 | 1040 | 1121 |
| 1200 | 1135 | 1300 | 1085 | 1135 |
| 1250 | 1180 | 1345 | 1150 | 1233 |
| 1300 | 1230 | 1395 | 1225 | 1233 |
| 1350 | 1280 | 1435 | 1285 | 1264 |
| 1400 | 1330 | 1480 | 1350 | 1350 |
| 1450 | 1380 | 1515 | 1400 | 1385 |
| 1500 | 1435 | 1550 | 1485 | 1421 |
| 1550 | 1490 | 1590 | 1540 | 1479 |
| 1600 | 1545 | 1625 | 1595 | 1520 |
| 1650 | 1595 | 1655 | 1645 | 1553 |
| 1700 | 1640 | 1690 | 1690 | 1601 |
| 1750 | 1695 | 1725 | 1730 | 1665 |
| 1800 | 1755 | 1765 | 1775 | 1730 |
| 1850 | 1815 | 1805 | 1810 | 1790 |
| 1900 | 1860 | 1830 | 1865 | 1860 |
| 1950 | 1910 | 1870 | 1905 | 1902 |
| 2000 | 1965 | 1900 | 1975 | 1961 |
| 2100 | 2075 | 1980 | 2045 | 2039 |
| 2200 | 2195 | 2040 | 2130 | 2132 |
| 2300 | 2300 | 2100 | 2200 | 2210 |
| 2400 | 2410 | 2180 | 2255 | 2286 |
| 2500 | 2520 | 2250 | 2360 | 2350 |
| 2600 | 2620 | 2355 | 2435 | 2409 |
| 2700 | 2720 | 2465 | 2500 | 2472 |
| 2800 | 2825 | 2590 | 2535 | 2537 |
Lichess Rating vs Chess.com
Last Updated: 11/18/2020
How does your chess.com rating compare to your lichess.org rating? The data we have is of active players on both sites. To keep these comparisons fresh, each section consists of relatively active players (RD < 150) on both sites. For this chart, we use your chess.com blitz rating as the base and map it to typical ratings on lichess.org. As you can see, lichess.org ratings are a couple of hundred points higher than Chess.com across the board.
Reading the Table
- Find Chess.com blitz rating in the first column
- All other ratings are mapped to Chess.com blitz
- The (+/-) values represent one standard deviation in predicted rating
| Chess.com Blitz | Lichess Blitz (+/- 115) | Lichess Bullet (+/- 175) | Lichess Rapid (+/- 140) | Lichess Classical (+/- 120) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900 | 1165 | |||
| 1000 | 1185 | |||
| 1100 | 1210 | 1055 | 1310 | 1385 |
| 1150 | 1280 | 1150 | 1345 | 1445 |
| 1200 | 1375 | 1350 | 1455 | 1575 |
| 1250 | 1460 | 1410 | 1590 | 1680 |
| 1300 | 1500 | 1455 | 1655 | 1700 |
| 1350 | 1535 | 1460 | 1690 | 1755 |
| 1400 | 1590 | 1460 | 1725 | 1845 |
| 1450 | 1645 | 1595 | 1770 | 1850 |
| 1500 | 1685 | 1665 | 1810 | 1880 |
| 1550 | 1730 | 1695 | 1830 | 1900 |
| 1600 | 1795 | 1715 | 1865 | 1925 |
| 1650 | 1840 | 1740 | 1895 | 1955 |
| 1700 | 1870 | 1800 | 1915 | 1960 |
| 1750 | 1880 | 1810 | 1965 | 1975 |
| 1800 | 1950 | 1835 | 1980 | 1995 |
| 1850 | 1970 | 1885 | 2000 | 2035 |
| 1900 | 1990 | 1945 | 2025 | 2050 |
| 1950 | 2055 | 2025 | 2075 | 2060 |
| 2000 | 2080 | 2025 | 2085 | 2070 |
| 2100 | 2130 | 2120 | 2195 | 2090 |
| 2200 | 2190 | 2190 | 2250 | 2210 |
| 2300 | 2380 | 2295 | 2280 | 2245 |
| 2400 | 2420 | 2345 |
Lichess Rating vs FIDE and USCF
Last update: 11/18/2020
We have also analyzed how lichess.org ratings map to OTB ratings. This table is created by combining the first two tables on this page. Similar to the Chess.com comparisons, Lichess.org ratings are generally quite a bit higher than OTB ratings. If you have a lichess rapid rating of 1500, don’t expect to score a 1500 performance at your first FIDE event. Your rating will map to roughly 1200 FIDE or 1200 USCF. The full data set is below, which maps all lichess ratings to their OTB averages across our survey result.
| Lichess Blitz | Lichess Bullet | Lichess Rapid | Lichess Classical | USCF | FIDE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1165 | 635 | ||||
| 1185 | 800 | ||||
| 1210 | 1055 | 1310 | 1385 | 960 | 1116 |
| 1280 | 1150 | 1345 | 1445 | 1040 | 1121 |
| 1375 | 1350 | 1455 | 1575 | 1085 | 1135 |
| 1460 | 1410 | 1590 | 1680 | 1150 | 1233 |
| 1500 | 1455 | 1655 | 1700 | 1225 | 1233 |
| 1535 | 1460 | 1690 | 1755 | 1285 | 1264 |
| 1590 | 1460 | 1725 | 1845 | 1350 | 1350 |
| 1645 | 1595 | 1770 | 1850 | 1400 | 1385 |
| 1685 | 1665 | 1810 | 1880 | 1485 | 1421 |
| 1730 | 1695 | 1830 | 1900 | 1540 | 1479 |
| 1795 | 1715 | 1865 | 1925 | 1595 | 1520 |
| 1840 | 1740 | 1895 | 1955 | 1645 | 1553 |
| 1870 | 1800 | 1915 | 1960 | 1690 | 1601 |
| 1880 | 1810 | 1965 | 1975 | 1730 | 1665 |
| 1950 | 1835 | 1980 | 1995 | 1775 | 1730 |
| 1970 | 1885 | 2000 | 2035 | 1810 | 1790 |
| 1990 | 1945 | 2025 | 2050 | 1865 | 1860 |
| 2055 | 2025 | 2075 | 2060 | 1905 | 1902 |
| 2080 | 2025 | 2085 | 2070 | 1975 | 1961 |
| 2130 | 2120 | 2195 | 2090 | 2045 | 2039 |
| 2190 | 2190 | 2250 | 2210 | 2130 | 2132 |
| 2380 | 2295 | 2280 | 2245 | 2200 | 2210 |
| 2420 | 2345 | 2255 | 2286 |
Next Steps
1. Take the rating survey to help expand the rating database
2. Check out our freely available study plans or 12-week premium study plans
3. Subscribe to email updates for a detailed study plan spreadsheet, coupon code for premium study plans, and blog updates
Follow us on social media:
Rating Survey
Please consider filling out the rating survey to help us expand our rating database.
Free Study Plans
Navigate over to our study plans page to find a free study plan.
Subscribe and Tell Your Friends
Signing up for our email list will give you access to a more detailed study plan spreadsheet. You will also receive emails when there are new blog posts and updates to the rating comparison page. Please also consider letting your friends know about our site!
New Around Here? Check out our best posts
Our most popular post is Lichess vs Chess.com, Battle of the Top 2 Chess Websites. It gives a thorough overview of the two sites and compares the different features.
Is a Chess.com Premium Membership Worth It? We give a full walkthrough of everything you get with a paid subscription, and determine if it will be worth it for you. We cover tactics, lessons, video content, and more!
The Effect of Age on Chess Improvement. The age-old question answered. How does my age affect my ability to improve in chess?
If you want more, check out our Tactic Teardown series, and our chess Learner Series.