How good is 400 chess rating? It’s a rating for a total beginner. But don’t worry! Everybody starts at a beginner rating. And in this article I will tell you exactly where you stand right now as a 400. And I’ll tell you how to double your rating super quickly.
How good is a 400 chess rating?
A chess rating of 400 is still considered to be the new player level. At this level, you learned the rules of chess recently. And you might even still be confused about some of the rules sometimes, such as castling and en passant.
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 donโt blunder pieces away anymore. If you lose itโs 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 400 elo a good chess rating?
400 is a perfectly fine chess rating for a beginner playing rapid on Chess.com. At the beginner level, there are no good and bad ratings anyway. You should only focus on enjoying the game and slowly getting better.
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 400 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 400 elo player plays against a 300 elo player, the 400 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if youโre an 400 elo rated player.
Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 400 rated player |
400 vs 100 | 85% |
400 vs 200 | 75% |
400 vs 300 | 65% |
400 vs 400 | 50% |
400 vs 500 | 35% |
400 vs 600 | 25% |
400 vs 700 | 15% |
How many people have a 400 chess rating?
Approximately 55 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 400 or more on Chess.com. Thatโs about 95% of all chess players, and about 0.9% of all people on earth.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 400 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 400 chess rating?
Most people get a chess rating of 400 immediately when they fully understand the rules of chess. In the table below you can see a natural chess rating progression.
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 past 400 chess rating
To get past 400 chess rating is very easy. All you have to do is play chess frequently and try to improve.
And if you want to get better even quicker you can join the Chess.com Diamond club. This gives you access to puzzles, lessons and game review software with which you can improve super quickly.
In fact, I bet that if you’re an 400 or below you can for sure gain 300 rating in 2 weeks if you 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 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)