Monkey with chess crown

What is a good chess rating? It depends on your perspective! Magnus Carlsen is the best player in the world at 2864 rating, but he would still like to get to 3000. On the other hand 1200 is a good rating for most casual players that started recently.

On this page I want to give you a quick overview of what different rating levels mean so that you can set your goals accordingly.

2864

Magnus Carlsen

1200

Mean chess rating on Chess.com

3546

Stockfish

2500

Grand master

2400

International master

650

Your rating 😉

Novice

Chess rating 400- 799

Novice chess players make many mistakes – as we all do in the beginning!

They recently learned the rules of chess, and might even forget them sometimes (especially those about castling, stalemates and en passant).

If you’re a novice, the only way to go is up 🙂

400 chess rating monkey
500 chess rating monkey
600 chess rating monkey
700 chess rating monkey

Beginner

Chess rating 800- 1099

Beginners in chess understand all the rules. They have a few openings that they like to play, and they might know a few tricks. They have the potential to play a good game of chess.

If you’re a beginner your big problem is blunders. You’re playing a good game, and then you suddenly lose a piece in 1 move. It’s very frustrating. But don’t worry, you’ll get over this soon if you learn to play cool, calm and collected 🙂

The first thing you should learn is common checkmate patterns, such as how to checkmate your opponent with only a king and a rook, and how to win king and pawn end games.

800 chess rating monkey
900 chess rating monkey
1000 chess rating monkey

Intermediate

Chess rating 1100- 1399

Intermediate chess players are pretty good!

If you’re an intermediate player, you stopped losing games with big blunders (for the most part). Your mistakes now are more commonly that you lose a pawn after a miscalculation, or occasionally you blunder a fork.

Your goal as an intermediate is to become more and more consistent in your play, and to develop 1 or 2 openings that you know very well.

1100 chess rating monkey
chess monkey 1200 rating
1300 chess rating monkey

Advanced intermediate

Chess rating 1400 – 1699

At this chess rating you can confidently say you’re good at chess.

You don’t blunder anymore, and you only make inaccuracies in complicated positions. You have answers to all the common chess openings, and you have a few tricky lines to surprise opponents.

The goal now is to learn about more complicated positions. You can start playing a Sicilian, Grunfeld or a Ruy Lopez at this point.

1400 chess rating monkey
1500 chess rating monkey
1600 chess rating monkey

Advanced

Chess rating 1700 – 1999

You’re now the best chess player in the room, almost anywhere you go (except at your chess club).

You don’t make mistakes anymore, you only make small inaccuracies. If you play against an intermediate player you can easily beat them with pressure and challenging positions.

The goal at this level is to round out your repertoire. Because there are still a quite a few systems that you don’t have a solid plan againt.

1700 chess rating monkey
1800 chess rating monkey
1900 chess rating monkey

Expert

Chess rating 2000 – 2299

Experts are extremely good at chess.

They’re pretty much as good as you can get without going professional.

If you get any higher in rating, you start to qualify for real chess titles (international master at 2400 and grand master at 2500).

2000 chess rating monkey

Gain 300 ELO in 7 Days for FREE

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How much rating can you gain in 7 days?

This week’s challenge: gain as much rating as possible for free within the 7 day free trial period of a Chess.com Diamond membership. (Average community result so far: 173 elo increase.)
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Also read: Best Chess Books: Top Picks for Every Skill Level

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