How good is 1200 chess rating? It depends on a lot of factors! Such as where you play, how long you’ve played and your own chess goals. But no matter what: I’m proud of you! 1200 is a pretty good chess rating. Now let me answer all your questions about 1200 elo in chess.
How good is a 1200 chess rating?
An elo rating of 1200 in chess means that you’re an intermediate player. You know the basics of chess, you know a few openings, you spot some tactics and you get strategy. But you don’t know all the chess openings yet and you play many inaccuracies and some blunders.
| Chess rating (elo) | Level | How you play |
| < 800 | Novice | You hang your queen 4 times per game |
| 800 – 1099 | Beginner | You play pretty well and then you blunder your queen. You know only 2 openings. |
| 1100 – 1399 | Intermediate | You can play all the common openings, but you blunder forks when you get tired. |
| 1400 – 1699 | Advanced intermediate | You don’t blunder pieces away anymore. If you lose it’s because you played inaccurately and you lost a pawn. |
| 1700 – 1999 | Advanced | People need to come at you with very challenging positions if they want you to make an inaccuracy. |
| 2000 – 2299 | Expert | You hold your own in almost any position. Your biggest enemies are stress and fatigue. |
Is 1200 elo a good chess rating?
It depends! If you’re a total beginner playing rapid on Chess.com, 1200 is a very respectable chess rating. But if you played chess for many years, you expect to have a higher elo. And if you’re a 1200 rated player on Lichess it’s less good than if you have 1200 elo on Chess.com. And if you play Blitz, 1200 is more impressive than if you play Rapid.
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 1200 elo chess rating mean?
The math behind the elo rating system works out in such a way that every difference of 100 elo points corresponds to a 65% chance to win. So for example if a 1200 elo player plays against a 1300 elo player, the 1300 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 1200 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 1200 rated player |
| 1200 vs 900 | 85% |
| 1200 vs 1000 | 75% |
| 1200 vs 1100 | 65% |
| 1200 vs 1200 | 50% |
| 1200 vs 1300 | 35% |
| 1200 vs 1400 | 25% |
| 1200 vs 1500 | 15% |
How many people have a 1200 chess rating?
Approximately 30 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 1200 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 50% of all chess players, and about 0.5% of all people on earth.
And about 3 million people have a chess rating between 1200 and 1299.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 1200 elo on Chess.com, Lichess, FIDE and USFC.
| Chess rating (elo) | Chess.com percentile | FIDE percentile | Lichess percentile | USFC percentile |
| 2000 to 2099 | 98% | 90% | 99% | 96% |
| 1900 to 1999 | 96% | 84% | 99% | 94% |
| 1800 to 1899 | 94% | 77% | 98% | 91% |
| 1700 to 1799 | 90% | 70% | 96% | 87% |
| 1600 to 1699 | 84% | 61% | 94% | 82% |
| 1500 to 1599 | 77% | 52% | 90% | 77% |
| 1400 to 1499 | 70% | 47% | 84% | 72% |
| 1300 to 1399 | 61% | 42% | 77% | 67% |
| 1200 to 1299 | 52% | 37% | 70% | 62% |
| 1100 to 1199 | 47% | 25% | 61% | 57% |
| 1000 to 1099 | 42% | 15% | 52% | 52% |
| 900 to 999 | 37% | 7% | 47% | 48% |
| 800 to 899 | 30% | 3% | 42% | 43% |
| 700 to 799 | 22% | 1% | 37% | 37% |
| 600 to 699 | 15% | 1% | 25% | 31% |
Also read: What is a Good Chess Rating? (with Percentile Calculator)
How long does it take to get to 1200 chess rating?
How long it takes to get to 1200 chess rating depends on how much you practice. And on how SMART you practice. If you use chess courses and a Chess.com Diamond membership to analyze your games, you progress much faster. If you use these resources you can become 1200 in 1 month, without them it might take 6 months.
| Chess rating | How long to get this rating (with Chess.com Diamond) | How long to get this rating (without learning resources) |
| 1000 | 1 week | 2 months |
| 1100 | 2 weeks | 3 months |
| 1200 | 4 weeks | 6 months |
| 1300 | 6 weeks | 9 months |
| 1400 | 2 months | 1 year |
| 1500 | 2.5 months | 2 years |
| 1600 | 3 months | Probably never |
Also read: Chess.com Diamond Review: Is Chess.com Diamond worth it?
How to easily get to 1200 chess rating (and blow past it)
It’s very easy to get past 1200 rating in chess. All you have to do is join the Chess.com Diamond club.
In fact, I think you can gain 300 rating points within 2 weeks if this is the first time you’re going to sign up for a Chess.com Diamond membership.
| Chess.com membership | Rating increase (within 2 weeks) |
| Basic (free) | +0 |
| Gold | +50 |
| Platinum | +100 |
| Diamond | +300 |
Why do you improve so much when you join the Diamond club?
Because you get a bunch of great study tools: game reviews, coach explanations, insights, lessons and puzzles.
| Chess study tool | Rating increase (within 2 weeks) |
| Playing games like normal | +0 |
| Chess puzzles | +25 |
| Chess lessons | +25 |
| Game review | +50 |
| Coach explanations | +100 |
| Insights | +100 |
These tools use artificial intelligence to analyze your chess games. They tell you for every move how good it was and what the best move would have been. And they even recommend lessons based on your common mistakes and playing patterns.
10 years ago only guys like Magnus Carlsen had access to this kind of technology. Now you can get it too. I’m confident this will have a huge impact on you and your chess rating. And you can even try it out for free for 7 days with the link below.
Get the Chess.com Diamond membership here (7 day free trial)