Table of Contents
- What Is FIDE
- How To Get A FIDE Rating
- How FIDE Ratings Are Calculated
- What Is A Good FIDE Rating
- Conclusion
FIDE is the highest governing body for chess worldwide. They maintain the rules in regards to chess and are responsible for international competitions. Chess ratings, often referred to as a FIDE rating, are used to denote a player’s ability with the game of chess.
A FIDE rating is given based on how many points you have accumulated in your lifetime playing competitively against other players who have also received a rating. The number of points that you get is determined by how many times you beat an opponent and how many times you lose to an opponent.
FIDE ratings do not take into account the rating of your opponent in order to compensate for easy or difficult opponents. The assumption is that since everyone has a rating, the rating system will compensate for any issues with the quality of opponents.
What Is FIDE
FIDE is an international chess organization that governs chess throughout the globe. FIDE has been granted the right to award titles and medals to individuals and divisions of the game. This is in addition to giving people an opportunity to compete in tournaments worldwide.
FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Echecs, International Federation of Chess) was founded in France in 1924. The purpose of the organization is to promote and coordinate the game of chess on a global level. The organization is made up of 184 national member federations that represent over 100 million chess players worldwide.
How To Get A FIDE Rating
The best way to get a rating on Chess.com is by playing in our tournament or ladder programs. You will be able to play against other players who probably have the same skill level as you. If you win matches, then you might gain points and elevate your rating over time. Each game will be calculated and added to your total score. If you lose, then you will have the opportunity to fight for a better score the next time around.
After each tournament, you will be able to see your scores on the “Tournament” tab of your profile. You can also navigate to the website of FIDE at www.fide.com in order to get a glimpse of where your rating is with respect to other players in the world.
We suggest searching and playing in tournaments until you get to a level that you are comfortable with. You will know when the time is right for you to take the next step if you are still consistently winning matches at the same level.
How FIDE Ratings Are Calculated
FIDE ratings for individual players are calculated on a percentile scale. This means that you have to beat other players in order to gain points. For example, if player A has a rating of 1500 and player B has a rating of 1400, player A would be considered more skilled at chess than player B. Player A would be the better player, but his rating would be lower than player B.
FIDE does not calculate ratings based on each game, but by each tournament that a player plays in. This means that in order to raise your rating, you would have to play against a series of opponents that are within your skill level. If you are able to obtain points by beating these players, then you will likely gain points for the tournament. The only way to lose points is if you lose games in tournaments or matches.
What Is A Good FIDE Rating
A good FIDE rating is one that is realistic for your skill level. This will allow you to play in tournaments and gain an interest in the game of chess. The number of rated players has grown over the years, and there are more than 60 million players worldwide. This makes finding a rating that you can relate to a difficult task. You can start by searching online similar to what we have done here at Chess.com for FIDE ratings by country and/or region. FIDE ratings begin at ≈100 and run up to ≈2700.
Experts have FIDE ratings of around 2,000, everything below that is broken up by classes like Class A, B, C, etc.
Once you get a rating of 2300, you start to quality for master level titles. 2300 would be classified as a FIDE Master (FM). 2400 is an International Master (IM). 2500 would earn you the highest title in the game of Chess, the Grandmaster (GM) title.
Conclusion
Competitive chess is a hard game, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. There are numerous classes and ratings that you can aspire to. The only way to get there is by starting out slowly at first. You can start out small and build your rating over time with well-played matches and tournaments.