What’s a chess rating and how do you get one?

If you’ve been playing chess online, you’ll have an online rating, which is a indication of your playing strength. In its simplest form, when you win or draw against a higher rated player, you gain rating points; when you lose or draw against a lower rated player, you lose rating points. When chess players start playing casually, they’ll often share their online rating to gauge the playing strength of their opponent – but an online chess rating isn’t an official rating.

Playing at a rated tournament is the only way to earn an official chess rating. The CFC (Chess Federation of Canada) has two types of ratings: quick (Q) or regular (R). After a tournament ends, the tournament organizer submits the results of the tournament (who played who and what the results were) to the CFC, and the ratings are calculated and posted on their website.

The first few tournaments will result in a provisional rating — you’ll see your rating in brackets. You might see a provisional rating fluctuate (either up or down) while you play your first few tournaments. When you’ve played the required number of games, your next posted rating won’t have the brackets, and that will be your official rating, which is always updated after each rated tournament.

A tournament will be quick rated or regular rated, and the difference between these two is the time controls. For example, a quick rated tournament might have 15+10 time controls, which means that each player has 15 minutes on their clock and gets 10 second increments added to their time for each move that they make. A regular tournament might be 90+30, which means that each player has 90 minutes on their clock, and 30 second increments are added each time a move is made.

A final note about chess rating: Don’t get obsessed over your chess rating. Mr. Radic knows many who have quite playing chess altogether because they were worried about their rating. Play chess for the love of the game or because you enjoy it; don’t get too hung up about your rating. In the end, it’s just a number. It doesn’t define who you are or your worth.