How to get a FIDE rating

A FIDE rating is your official international chess rating, published by FIDE (the World Chess Federation) and updated on a regular rating list. It is separate from your Chess.com or Lichess rating, which are private to those sites. A FIDE rating is what appears on your official player profile and is used for tournament seeding, title norms and international play.

You earn it by playing over-the-board games in tournaments that are registered as FIDE-rated events - not by playing online. The rating reflects your results against other rated players.

The first step is to enter tournaments that are FIDE-rated. Organisers register these events with a national federation, which submits the results to FIDE. Look for open tournaments, weekend Swiss events, or club leagues advertised as "FIDE-rated." Your national federation's website usually lists rated events and any membership you need to join.

You typically need to be a registered member of your national chess federation to have your results processed. That membership, plus entering rated events, is the practical entry point - so contacting your national federation is the concrete first move.

To be assigned an initial FIDE rating you must play a minimum number of games against already-rated opponents (across one or several rated tournaments), and score at least enough to produce a rating at or above FIDE's current published floor. If you score zero against rated opponents, or your performance falls below the floor, you do not yet get a rating - you keep playing until you clear it.

The exact figures - how many rated games are required and the minimum rating floor - are set by the FIDE Handbook and have changed over the years, so confirm the current numbers with the FIDE rating regulations or your national federation before you plan around them. The mechanism, though, is stable: enough games, against rated players, clearing the floor.

Your initial rating is based on your performance against your rated opponents - essentially your score adjusted for how strong those opponents were. Beating higher-rated players raises it; losing to lower-rated players lowers it. This means the strength of the field matters: a good result in a stronger event yields a higher initial rating than the same score in a weak one.

After your first published rating, it updates after every rated event based on expected versus actual score, like any Elo system. Early on, ratings move faster (a higher development coefficient) and then stabilise as you play more rated games.

Because your initial rating is anchored by your first results, it is worth arriving prepared rather than rusty. Play practice games in classical time controls to get used to the slower pace and to writing down moves (notation is usually required in FIDE-rated play). Sharpen the fundamentals - not hanging pieces, converting winning positions, basic endgames - since those decide results at every level.

Reviewing your own games beforehand tells you what to shore up. Audit Chess analyses your Chess.com or Lichess history for free and shows your weakest openings, the mistakes you repeat, and the winning positions you tend to throw away - a practical way to tidy up your play before your rating is on the line.

Once you hold a FIDE rating, keep playing rated events to refine it and to pursue rating goals or title norms. Your rating will settle toward your true strength as your sample of rated games grows. From there, improving your FIDE rating is the same problem as improving any rating: identify your specific weaknesses and drill them, while competing regularly against strong opposition.