Chess.com vs Lichess vs FIDE ratings

The same player can be 1500 on one site, 1800 on another and have no FIDE rating at all. None of these numbers is "wrong". They come from different formulas, different starting points and different groups of players. Here's what each organisation says about its own system.

FIDE: Elo for over-the-board chess

• FIDE uses Elo. It reads the expected score from its own table and caps rating gaps at 400 for players rated under 2650, a rule in force since 1 October 2025.^[1]
• K is 40 for new players and juniors under 2300, 20 under 2400, and 10 once a player has reached 2400.^[1]
• A first rating is the average of your rated opponents plus two hypothetical 1800-rated opponents you're assumed to have drawn with, adjusted by your score. It's capped at 2200 and must be at least 1400.^[1]
• FIDE publishes only ratings of at least 1400, and players who drop below 1400 are shown as unrated on the next list.^[1]
• The rating list comes out monthly. In 1971 it came out once a year.^[2]

Lichess: Glicko-2

• Lichess uses Mark Glickman's Glicko-2. New players start at 1500 ± 1000, which means the system is 95% sure the true rating is between 500 and 2500.^[3]
• A "?" next to a rating means it's provisional, which Lichess defines as a rating deviation above 110. After a long break, about a year depending on games played, a rating can become provisional again.^[3]
• Lichess also takes colour into account, awarding more points for results with the black pieces.^[4]
• Lichess says its median rating stays close to 1500, and that higher numbers than FIDE or Chess.com "only show that ratings from different systems cannot be compared", rather than inflation.^[4]

Chess.com: Glicko

• Chess.com uses the Glicko system with a rating deviation (RD). New and inactive players have a high RD, so their ratings swing more, and a result against an opponent with a high RD changes your rating less.^[5]
• Your first rating in a new live time control starts at or near your rating in one you've already played. Daily ratings are based only on the skill level chosen when you created the account.^[5]
• Lichess's comparison page notes that Chess.com uses Glicko-1, that new players used to start at 1200, and that new players now choose their starting rating.^[4]

Why the numbers differ

1. Different starting points. 1500 on Lichess, a chosen level on Chess.com, and a performance-based start with a 1400 minimum at FIDE. All ratings after that are relative to those starting points.
2. Different pools. A rating measures you against the people you play. Online and over-the-board players are largely different groups, playing at different time controls.
3. Different formulas. Glicko's RD makes ratings move faster when uncertain,^[6] and FIDE's 400-point cap and 1400 floor shape the bottom of its list.

Can you convert between them?

No organisation publishes an official conversion between Chess.com, Lichess and FIDE ratings. Lichess says it isn't useful to compare ratings across organisations at all.^[3] Unofficial charts are based on self-reported data from players who have both ratings. Treat them as rough guides only. We don't publish one because we don't have a reliable dataset.

Within one system, the win probability calculator shows what a rating gap means. For an over-the-board event, the performance rating calculator uses FIDE's method.

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