How good is 1500 chess rating? It’s good! 1500 is the biggest milestone is the journey of most amateur chess players. Let me tell you exactly what 1500 elo means and how to get 1500 chess rating quickly.
How good is a 1500 chess rating?
An elo rating of 1500 in chess is good! If you’re 1500 you can confidently claim that you’re good at chess. You can beat all your friends at chess easily unless they also seriously study chess (with courses or in a chess club).
| 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 1500 elo a good chess rating?
It depends on where you play! 1500 is a very good rating Chess.com, but it’s a beginner rating on Lichess (where they have a different rating system). And if you play Blitz or Over the board chess, 1500 is even more impressive!
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 1500 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 1500 elo player plays against a 1400 elo player, the 1500 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 1500 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 900 rated player |
| 1500 vs 1200 | 85% |
| 1500 vs 1300 | 75% |
| 1500 vs 1400 | 65% |
| 1500 vs 1500 | 50% |
| 1500 vs 1600 | 35% |
| 1500 vs 1700 | 25% |
| 1500 vs 1800 | 15% |
How many people have a 1500 chess rating?
Approximately 14 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 1500 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 23% of all chess players, and about 0,2% of all people on earth.
And about 4 million people have a chess rating between 1500 and 1599.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 1500 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 1500 chess rating?
It takes most adult beginners about 2 years to get to 1500 chess rating if they only play chess casually. But you can speed this up a lot if you study seriously. You get to 1500 chess rating in about 2.5 months if you take chess courses or a Chess.com Diamond membership.
| 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 1500 chess rating (and blow past it)
The easiest way to get to 1500 chess rating is to 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 using a Chess.com Diamond membership.
| Chess.com membership | Rating increase (within 2 weeks) |
| Basic (free) | +0 |
| Gold | +50 |
| Platinum | +100 |
| Diamond | +300 |
Why can 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)