Chess Rating Converter

Both sites use the Glicko rating system, but their player pools and starting conditions differ. Lichess starts new players at 1500 while Chess.com's defaults are lower, and the average strength of each pool differs per time control. The result: at club level a Lichess rating is typically 200–400 points higher than the equivalent Chess.com rating, though the gap shrinks as ratings rise and roughly disappears around 2200 blitz.

It is built from survey data of roughly 20,000 active players who hold established ratings on both platforms (rating deviation under 150). The conversion is a statistical estimate: about half of players land within the 'typical range' shown next to each result. Your own gap can differ based on how many games you have played, which pool you play in, and which time control you take seriously.

Not exactly. 'Elo' technically refers to the classical system used by FIDE for over-the-board chess. Lichess and Chess.com both use Glicko-2, a refinement of Elo that also tracks rating uncertainty. In everyday speech all of these are called 'Elo', which is why this page converts between them — but online ratings are not directly comparable to FIDE ratings.

At the beginner end, an 800-rated Chess.com blitz player maps to roughly 1290 on Lichess — a gap of almost 500 points. By 1700 Chess.com the gap is under 200, and around 2200 the two ratings are nearly equal. This happens because the two sites anchor new players differently and their pools have different strength distributions, which compresses the difference at the top.

Yes, each time control has its own player pool on each site and therefore its own conversion curve. Rapid pools in particular are 'flatter': beginner rapid ratings run higher and strong rapid ratings run lower than the same player's blitz rating. That is why this converter asks for the time control instead of applying one formula to everything.

Online ratings overestimate over-the-board strength. As a rough guide, a 1800 Lichess rapid player is around 1450 USCF, and Chess.com blitz tracks USCF fairly closely between about 1300 and 2000. If you have never played rated over-the-board chess, expect your first OTB rating to come in below what this converter shows for either site.

The fastest documented way to gain rating is reviewing your own games and eliminating recurring mistakes. Chessiro gives you free, unlimited game review with plain-English explanations, tracks the mistake patterns that cost you rating, and turns them into training positions.