Converter / FAQ
Chess Rating FAQ
Short, honest answers about converting ratings between Chess.com and Lichess, reading your percentile among active players, and what actually counts as a good rating. If you want the full workings behind the numbers, the methodology page has them.
Is there an official way to convert Chess.com to Lichess ratings?
No. There is no official conversion between the two platforms. Each site runs its own separate rating pool, with its own starting points and its own population, so a rating on one does not carry a fixed value on the other. The honest way to line them up is percentile matching: we find the rating on each platform that sits at the same standing among active rated players. That is exactly what the converter does.
Why are Lichess ratings higher than Chess.com ratings?
Lichess ratings run higher than Chess.com ratings across most of the range because the two platforms are different pools with different starting points and different populations. The size of the gap is not constant. It varies by level and by time control, which is why any single add N points formula is wrong at most levels. For the full picture at every rating, see our Chess.com to Lichess tables.
What is a good chess rating?
It depends entirely on which pool you are in, so a raw number on its own does not tell you much. The honest yardstick is your percentile: the share of active rated players you stand above. A rating that looks modest can still place you ahead of most players once you measure it against a real population. For a worked example, see whether 1200 is a good chess rating.
What percentile is my rating?
The converter shows it for you. Type in your rating, platform, and time control, and it reports the percentile: you are rated higher than X% of active rated players in that pool. Because we count active rated players rather than every account ever created, this figure is stricter than the all-accounts statistics you may see elsewhere.
Why does the converter disagree with other conversion sites?
Most conversion sites froze a single formula years ago and never revisited it. Rating pools drift over time as populations change, so a number that was roughly right once can be well off today. We recompute from fresh platform data every month and show a confidence range instead of a single false-precise number. You can read exactly how on our methodology page.
Can I compare my blitz rating to my rapid rating?
Blitz and rapid are separate pools, even on the same platform, so their numbers are not directly comparable. What the tool does instead is show your same-percentile standing across time controls, clearly labeled, so you can see where you rank in each pool rather than assuming the raw numbers mean the same thing.
Do you support FIDE ratings?
Not yet. FIDE percentiles are planned but not included at the moment. Keep in mind that a FIDE over-the-board rating is a different pool again: the ratings on this site are online-platform ratings, and they do not translate directly to over-the-board play.
How often is the data updated?
The data is recomputed monthly, and the as-of date is shown right on the tool so you always know how fresh the numbers are.
Is my rating stored when I use the tool?
No. Everything runs in your browser. The rating you type is used only on your own device to look up baked-in tables. It is never uploaded, stored, or seen by us, and there are no accounts or sign-ups.