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What Is a Good Chess Rating?
There is no single answer, because there is no single scale: the same strength shows up as different numbers on Chess.com, Lichess and the official FIDE list. What you can do is place any rating in a band — and then decide whom you want to compare yourself with.
Rating bands per platform
The bands below are a rough map, aligned across platforms using survey medians of players active on more than one system. Boundaries are deliberately round — treat them as ±100.
| Level | Chess.com blitz | Lichess blitz | FIDE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | under 800 | under 1200 | — |
| Improving casual | 800–1200 | 1200–1550 | up to ≈1550 |
| Club player | 1200–1600 | 1550–1850 | ≈1550–1750 |
| Strong club player | 1600–2000 | 1850–2100 | ≈1750–1950 |
| Expert | 2000–2400 | 2100–2400 | ≈1950–2300 |
| Master level | 2400+ | 2400+ | 2300+ (FM and up) |
The FIDE column starts late for a reason: since March 2024 FIDE does not publish ratings below 1400, so casual online players often have no FIDE number at all. At the top, the bands hand over to official titles — Candidate Master at 2200, FIDE Master at 2300, International Master at 2400 and Grandmaster at 2500, the last two also requiring norms (see the title norm calculator).
"Good" compared with whom?
- Against all players: a club-band rating already puts you ahead of the great majority of casual players. Check your exact standing against the live Lichess distribution with the rating percentile calculator.
- Against tournament players: the yardstick shifts — in an open weekend tournament a 1700 FIDE player is ordinary, and "strong" starts around 2000.
- Against your past self: the only comparison you fully control. Pick a target band and estimate the games it takes with the rating goal calculator.
The bottom line
A "good" rating is one band above wherever you are now. Use the bands to set a realistic next step, not to compare raw numbers across sites — those scales differ by hundreds of points.