Question 1

Is there an official conversion between FIDE, USCF, Lichess and Chess.com ratings?

Accepted Answer

No. Each system runs its own algorithm (FIDE and USCF use Elo, Lichess and Chess.com use Glicko-2) on its own player pool, so there is no official formula between them. Online-to-online comparisons are reasonably reliable and come from a regression across roughly 20,000 dual-platform profiles. Online-to-over-the-board is far weaker: only players who enter rated events have an OTB rating, which biases the sample upward at lower levels, and published regressions can differ from what players report by 300 points or more. This tool therefore shows FIDE and USCF as a range rather than a single number.

Question 2

Why can't I get an exact FIDE rating estimate from my online rating?

Accepted Answer

Three reasons. Selection bias: only players who compete in rated over-the-board events hold a FIDE rating, and they skew serious, so low-rated online players who also have a FIDE rating are unrepresentative. Derived data: widely-cited FIDE comparison columns are often converted from USCF figures rather than measured directly. And FIDE has had a hard rating floor of 1400 since 1 January 2024, when ratings between 1000 and 2000 also received a one-time increase, so the bottom of the FIDE scale is compressed by rule. The only way to know your FIDE rating is to play a FIDE-rated tournament.

Question 3

Why is my Lichess rating higher than my Chess.com rating?

Accepted Answer

Lichess ratings run inflated relative to Chess.com for the same playing strength, largely because of differences in the player pool and how each platform's Glicko-2 implementation is tuned. The gap is typically largest at Bullet and narrows at Rapid and Classical.

Question 4

How many games does it take to gain 100 rating points?

Accepted Answer

It depends on your K-factor and how far above your expected score you perform. Against opposition at your own level (50% expected score), a player averaging 60% per game with a K-factor of 40 gains about 4 points per game, so roughly 25 games to gain 100 points — the Games to Target tab on this page runs the exact calculation for your own numbers.

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