Guides › Lichess vs Chess.com Rating

Lichess vs Chess.com Rating — Why the Numbers Differ

Play on both sites and you will notice it immediately: your Lichess rating is usually a few hundred points higher than your Chess.com rating. Neither number is wrong — they simply come from two different systems and cannot be compared directly.

Why the same player gets two different numbers

A rating only measures your position within one pool of players. Lichess and Chess.com each run their own pool with their own Glicko-based algorithm (Lichess uses Glicko-2) and their own starting point: a new Lichess account starts at 1500, while Chess.com starts new players lower. Once the pools drift apart at the starting line, every number in them shifts too — so "1600 on Lichess" and "1600 on Chess.com" describe different strengths.

How big is the gap?

The best available evidence comes from surveying players who are active on both sites at once. The medians look like this:

The pattern: at club level the Lichess number runs roughly 300–400 points above Chess.com, and the gap shrinks as ratings rise — above 2500 the two are nearly equal. These are medians with a wide spread, so your own gap can easily differ by 100 points or more. For your exact numbers, use the rating conversion calculator.

How to compare fairly

• Match the time control. Compare blitz to blitz and rapid to rapid — each has a separate rating with its own gap. Bullet transfers worst across sites.
• Don't chase the bigger number. A higher rating on one site does not mean you play better there; it means the scale is shifted.
• Compare percentiles instead. "Top 20% of blitz players" means the same thing on any site — check yours with the rating percentile calculator.

The bottom line

Ratings are local currencies: convert before comparing. Pick one site and one time control as your yardstick, track progress there, and use conversions only as a rough map between worlds.