How good is 500 chess rating? To be honest, it’s a beginner rating. But everybody begins somewhere! So if you’re stuck at 500 elo, let me tell you where you stand now, and how you can improve past 500 rating in chess.
How good is a 500 chess rating?
A chess rating of 500 is still considered to be beginner level. At this level, players still make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of trouble against more experienced players.
| 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 500 elo a good chess rating?
500 is a perfectly fine chess rating for a beginner playing rapid on Chess.com. Everybody has to start somewhere. And the exciting thing about being rated 500 is that you can improve a lot very quickly.
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 500 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 500 elo player plays against a 700 elo player, the 700 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re an 500 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 500 rated player |
| 500 vs 200 | 85% |
| 500 vs 300 | 75% |
| 500 vs 400 | 65% |
| 500 vs 500 | 50% |
| 500 vs 600 | 35% |
| 500 vs 700 | 25% |
| 500 vs 800 | 15% |
How many people have a 500 chess rating?
Approximately 51 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 500 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 85% of all chess players, and about 0.7% of all people on earth.
And about 4 million people have a chess rating between 500 and 599.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 500 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 500 chess rating?
How long it takes to get 500 chess rating depends on many things, such as your age and experience in chess. Most adult beginners start at least at the 500 level.
If you’re struggling to get to 500 chess rating, you can probably practice in a better way. For example, you probably don’t use the tools that you get with a Chess.com Diamond membership. With these tools you can probably get to 500 rating very soon.
| 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 500 chess rating (and blaze past it)
The easiest way to get to and past 500 chess rating is to become a Diamond member on Chess.com.
If you join the Diamond club, you’ll skyrocket to 500, 1000 and 1500 very quickly.
I’m 100% certain that if you’re an 500 or below you can at least 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)