What the heck is a rating?
Paul Morphy does not have a rating because the
rating system was not invented until after his death. However, chess
historians have estimated that Paul Morphy's rating would be over 2600.
The Rating system is the same to chess as the
belt system is to Karate.
With a rating you know exactly how good you are.
You can easily chart your improvement, and know
how you stand with other kids your age in the country. (see
top 100 list).
People have been known to study hard in order
to increase their rating. To achieve a Chess Master rating (2200) is a
significant accomplishment for anyone. Albert Einstein was a chess enthusiast
but only made it up to 1800 in rating!
Different Types of Rating Systems:
Academic
Chess Rating
This is our own rating system that mimics the USCF system. The difference
is that you get your game results back right away and the games are cheaper
to rate. We use this rating system at our Friday Night tournament (see
tournament section) and view it as good warm up for a USCF rated event.
USCF
Rating
The United States Chess Federation. This rating system is used in most
of the tournaments in the United States. Click here for a listing of USCF
categories.
See the Rating
Histogram for a list of how today's players break down according to
USCF rating.
FIDE
Rating
This is the world rating federation and is used in large International
events comprised mostly of professional chess players. FIDE ratings are
generally a little lower than USCF. For example, Gary
Kasparov is rated 2780 FIDE, which would be about 2880 USCF. (Wow!)
ESTIMATE YOUR RATING BASED ON GAMES YOU HAVE PLAYED HERE:
RATING
CALCULATOR
Another great web resource...look up your current rating, past rating,
or check out any USCF rated player if you know their name:
USCF RATING LOOK UP
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