How good is 1900 chess rating? It depends on where you play! Let me tell you how elo ratings work in the world of chess. And let me also tell you what you have to do to get to 1900 rating in chess.
How good is a 1900 chess rating?
A 1900 chess rating is very good. It’s almost breaking into the 2000 milestone, at which point you’re a true expert. If we make an analogy, being 1900 in chess is like being a brown belt in a martial art. You can beat almost everybody else, but there are still some people better than you that can make you look like a fool.
| 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 1900 elo a good chess rating?
1900 chess rating is very good on Chess.com. It means that you’re very experienced and you know a lot about chess. You have both deep knowledge of a few lines, and broad knowledge of the goals in any opening. (But of course 1900 rating on Lichess is less good, it’s more of an intermediatee rating.)
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 1900 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 1900 elo player plays against a 1800 elo player, the 1900 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 1900 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 1900 rated player |
| 1900 vs 1600 | 85% |
| 1900 vs 1700 | 75% |
| 1900 vs 1800 | 65% |
| 1900 vs 1900 | 50% |
| 1900 vs 2000 | 35% |
| 1900 vs 2100 | 25% |
| 1900 vs 2200 | 15% |
How many people have a 1900 chess rating?
Approximately 2.5 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 1900 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 4% of all chess players, and about 0.04% of all people on earth.
And about 1.2 million people have a chess rating between 1900 and 1999.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 1900 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 1900 chess rating?
It takes at least 6 months to a year of serious study to reach 1900 rating in chess. And with serious study I mean that you get chess courses, a chess coach, or a Chess.com Diamond membership. Without learning resources you cannot get to 1900 rating in chess.
| 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 1900 chess rating quickly
To get to 1900 chess rating as quickly as possible, you have to invest in some learning resources immediately. You can’t waste any more time just grinding away on games. You need a specific plan on how you will improve your chess.
The first step you need to take, if you didn’t do this yet, is Diamond membership to Chess.com. This is the cheapest way to get access to the game review software you need to improve your chess quickly.
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)