How good is 1800 chess rating? I mean wow, that’s a good rating! But to really know what we’re talking about I need to clarify some things. So let me first tell you exactly what 1800 elo means. And then let me tell you how to get to 1800 chess rating efficiently, if that’s what you want.
How good is a 1800 chess rating?
1800 is an advanced chess rating. You cannot get to 1800 rating without studying chess seriously and playing hundreds or thousands of games. It’s a very high percentile of chess players that have 1800 rating or higher.
| 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 1800 elo a good chess rating?
Yes 1800 is a good chess rating, but don’t forget that ratings differ a lot across different websites. An 1800 rated player on Chess.com is very advanced, whereas an 1800 on Lichess is merely a good beginner.
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 1800 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 1800 elo player plays against a 1700 elo player, the 1800 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 1800 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 900 rated player |
| 1800 vs 1500 | 85% |
| 1800 vs 1600 | 75% |
| 1800 vs 1700 | 65% |
| 1800 vs 1800 | 50% |
| 1800 vs 1900 | 35% |
| 1800 vs 2000 | 25% |
| 1800 vs 2100 | 15% |
How many people have a 1800 chess rating?
Approximately 3.6 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 1800 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 6% of all chess players, and about 0.05% of all people on earth.
And about 2.4 million people have a chess rating between 1800 and 1899.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 1800 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 1800 chess rating?
You can get to 1800 chess rating within 6 months if you’re talented, you use a Chess.com Diamond membership and you study chess books or courses. But if you just play casual chess games online without studying, you will never get to 1800 chess rating.
| 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 1800 chess rating (and blow past it)
To get to 1800 chess rating you need to study chess seriously. It’s a big ambition, and you won’t get there by just grinding many games. You need a smarter approach.
The first thing you need to do is get a Diamond membership to Chess.com. This gives you the most important tools for you to improve quickly in chess.
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)