How good is 1700 chess rating? It’s good but it also depends on where you play, your talent and your ambition. Let me explain what I mean in this article. And I’ll also tell you how to get to 1700 chess rating if that’s what you want.
How good is a 1700 chess rating?
A chess rating of 1700 on Chess.com is an advanced rating. It means that you know many openings, you have good end game technique and you spot tactics in the mid game. At 1700 it’s impossible to lose to chess beginners.
| 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 1700 elo a good chess rating?
1700 chess rating is very good, assuming that you play on Chess.com. It’s a rating that most casual players will never achieve. So you can be proud of yourself! (If you play on Lichess your rating is inflated by a few hundred points, so it’s less impressive.)
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 1700 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 1700 elo player plays against a 1600 elo player, the 1700 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 1700 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 900 rated player |
| 1700 vs 1400 | 85% |
| 1700 vs 1500 | 75% |
| 1700 vs 1600 | 65% |
| 1700 vs 1700 | 50% |
| 1700 vs 1800 | 35% |
| 1700 vs 1900 | 25% |
| 1700 vs 2000 | 15% |
How many people have a 1700 chess rating?
Approximately 6 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 1700 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 10% of all chess players, and about 0.1% of all people on earth.
And about 2.5 million people have a chess rating between 1700 and 1799.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 1700 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 1700 chess rating?
It takes between 3 and 6 months to reach 1700 chess rating if you study hard and smart. What I mean with that is that you get some relevant chess courses and you use a Chess.com Diamond membership. If you just play casually without studying you probably won’t reach 1700 chess rating (ever).
| 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 get to 1700 chess rating quickly
To get to 1700 chess rating you have to put in the work. That means that you need to study hard. But more importantly, you need to study SMART. And the smartest way to study is to use the resources you get with a Chess.com Diamond membership.
No matter how experienced you are, 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)