Ratings and tournaments
What a rating means, how points are won and lost, and how tournaments and titles work.
The idea
A rating measures your results; a tournament counts your points.
- Beat a higher-rated player and you gain more than for a lower-rated one.
- Lose to a lower-rated player and you lose more than to a higher-rated one.
- In a tournament a win scores a point, a draw half a point, a loss nothing.
In a game: Compare ratings only from the same list: the same site, or FIDE, and the same speed.
The lesson
A rating is a number that measures your results against other rated players: the higher it is, the stronger the player. FIDE, the world chess federation, uses the system that Arpad Elo designed, so a rating is often called an Elo rating.
After each rated game you gain or lose points. How many depends on your opponent’s rating. Beat a player rated higher than you and you gain many points; beat a lower-rated one and you gain only a few. Losing works the other way round.
A question
You are rated 1500. You win two games: one against a player rated 1700, one against a player rated 1300. Which win gains you more points?
Show the answer
The win against the player rated 1700.
Right. You were not expected to beat a stronger player, so that win is worth more.
A question
You are rated 1500 and draw with a player rated 1800. What happens to your rating?
Show the answer
It goes up.
Right. Against a much stronger player you were expected to score less than half a point, so a draw gains you points.
Every chess site keeps its own ratings, usually a separate one for each speed, such as bullet, blitz and rapid. FIDE keeps its own ratings too, for classical, rapid and blitz games played over the board in FIDE-rated events.
Each list rates a different group of players, and sites use their own systems. So there is no exact way to turn a rating on one site into a rating on another site, or into a FIDE rating.
A question
Your blitz rating on a chess site is 1800. What is your FIDE rating?
Show the answer
There is no way to tell from that number.
Right. A FIDE rating comes only from FIDE-rated games over the board.
In a tournament a win scores 1 point, a draw ½ and a loss 0. Many open tournaments use the Swiss system. Nobody is knocked out, so you keep playing until the last round. In each round you meet a player on the same score as you, or as close to it as possible. You never meet the same opponent twice, and colours are shared out so that you have White and Black about equally.
A question
In a Swiss tournament you win your first game, draw the second and lose the third. What is your score?
Show the answer
1½.
Right. 1 for the win, ½ for the draw and 0 for the loss.
A question
You have won all three of your games so far. Whom will you most likely meet in round four?
Show the answer
Another player with 3 points.
Right. The Swiss system pairs players on the same score, so the leaders meet each other.
A question
In a round robin every player meets every other player once. Eight players take part. How many games does each one play?
Show the answer
7.
Right. Each player meets the seven others once. In a double round robin they would meet twice, once with each colour.
FIDE also awards titles for strong play. From the top they are Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM) and Candidate Master (CM). There are women’s titles too, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), and women can earn the open titles as well.
The GM and IM titles need a high rating and norms: strong results in tournaments against titled players.
A question
Which of these titles is the highest?
Show the answer
Grandmaster (GM).
Right. Grandmaster is the highest of the titles FIDE awards for play.