How good is 800 chess rating? It’s not too bad! But it could be better! Let me tell you exactly what it means to be rated 800 in chess. And I’ll give you some tips on how to improve past 800 rating along the way.
How good is a 800 chess rating?
An elo rating of 800 in chess means that you kind of know what you’re doing! You can explain the rules to new players, and you can show them some tricks. But of course, you still have a lot of room left for improvement in all aspects of chess.
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 800 elo a good chess rating?
800 is a good chess rating for a beginner playing rapid on Chess.com. It’s a rating that shows that you’re not a newbie anymore. But of course you can still improve your chess rating a lot with some serious study and practice.
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 800 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 800 elo player plays against a 700 elo player, the 800 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if youโre an 800 elo rated player.
Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 800 rated player |
800 vs 500 | 85% |
800 vs 600 | 75% |
800 vs 700 | 65% |
900 vs 900 | 50% |
800 vs 900 | 35% |
800 vs 1000 | 25% |
800 vs 1100 | 15% |
How many people have a 800 chess rating?
Approximately 42 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 800 or more on Chess.com. Thatโs about 70% of all chess players, and about 0.3% of all people on earth.
And about 4 million people have a chess rating between 800 and 899.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 800 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 800 chess rating?
How long it takes to get 800 chess rating is very different for different players. Some people start at 800 rating immediately through talent. Other players will struggle to ever get to 800 chess rating.
If you’re stuggling to get to 800 chess rating you’re probably not training very effectively. And I’m sure that you’re not using all the premium tools of a Chess.com Diamond membership. With these resources almost anybody can get 800 chess rating within a week or two.
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 800 chess rating (and blow past it)
The quickest way to get to and past 800 chess rating is to become a Diamond member on Chess.com.
There are almost no 800s in the Diamond club, because everybody skyrockets their rating towards the 1500s and above.
I bet that if you’re an 800 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)