How good is 900 chess rating? It’s not bad! Depending on a few factors such as your experience, your goals and where you play, you can be a proud 900 rated player! Now let me answer all your questions about 900 elo in chess.
How good is a 900 chess rating?
An elo rating of 900 in chess means that you’re a decent beginner. You know the rules of chess, a few openings and… how to lose your queen in 1 move. Yeah, that still happens to you. But not as much as it used to! And you can definitely beat complete chess newbies.
| 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 900 elo a good chess rating?
It depends! If you’re a total beginner playing rapid on Chess.com, 900 is not a bad rating. But you can definitely increase your rating with some study and practice. And if you’re a 900 on Lichess, well, that’s less impressive than being 900 on Chess.com!
Also read: Chess rating converter: Chess.com to Lichess to FIDE
What does a 900 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 900 elo player plays against a 800 elo player, the 900 elo player has a 65% chance to win.
You can read what this means for you if you’re a 900 elo rated player.
| Elo player 1 vs elo player 2 | Win chance for the 900 rated player |
| 900 vs 600 | 85% |
| 900 vs 700 | 75% |
| 900 vs 800 | 65% |
| 900 vs 900 | 50% |
| 900 vs 1000 | 35% |
| 900 vs 1100 | 25% |
| 900 vs 1200 | 15% |
How many people have a 900 chess rating?
Approximately 38 millions people in the world have a chess rating of 900 or more on Chess.com. That’s about 63% of all chess players, and about 0.4% of all people on earth.
And about 6 million people have a chess rating between 900 and 999.
In the table below you can read what percentile of people have 900 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 900 chess rating?
How long it takes to get to 900 chess rating depends on your talent and how you practice. Some people are so talented that they’re 900 when they start playing. But most people need to practice for 1 or 2 months to get a 900 rating on Chess.com.
Of course, you can make this a lot quicker by practicing smarter. If you study with all the premium tools of a Chess.com Diamond membership, you get better much faster. With these resources you can become 900 within a week, without them it might take 2 months.
| 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 900 chess rating (and blow past it)
You can get to 900 rating in chess very easily. All you have to do is join the Chess.com Diamond club.
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)