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FIDE & World Chess · The First Rating Experiment

Your first official rating, earned online.

For the first time, online play can lead to an official FIDE Rapid or Blitz rating. The white paper setting out exactly how is now published. It is a work in progress — read it, question it, and help shape the final rules.

Read the white paper Join the discussion

An initiative by ♔ World Chess and ♔ FIDE

Open hours on Zoom: Wednesday, August 19, 16:00 CEST (15:00 London, 10:00 New York, 19:30 Delhi). No presentation — the team behind the paper, taking questions and suggestions.

Join on Zoom ›

The white paper

What the paper proposes.

A controlled, two-year experiment on worldchess.com under full FIDE supervision. Two mechanisms, one formula, and a set of deliberate limits.

Rapid & blitz only

Classical chess is entirely out of scope. Rapid and Blitz are handled separately — game counts and conversions never cross between the two.

Two mechanisms

A starting rating for players who have none, and a capped, once-a-year conversion for players who do. Both rest on the same formula.

Ceiling: 1,800

Nothing converts above 1,800. Past that line, ratings are earned over the board, as they always have been.

The 95% rule

No assigned rating ever exceeds 95% of what the player has shown online. On average, the formula lands 175–195 points below true over-the-board strength.

A rating never falls

Conversion is always the player’s own decision, the result is shown before they commit, and no rating can drop as a result of this programme.

FIDE supervised

FIDE sets the conditions, supervises throughout, and can pause or end the experiment at any time.

Why this matters

500,000 rated players.
Hundreds of millions play.

The gap is not about strength. It is about geography and money. A player who grows up without a club, a rated tournament, or an active federation nearby has no way in — not because they cannot play, but because the door was never there.

For the player in a country with no rated events

Online chess is where they compete. Their skill is real. Their rating never was — until now. This offers a first official step into the game.

For coaches, federations, and selectors

An official rating is the thing they recognise. Without it, a talented player is invisible. With it, doors open: tournaments, programmes, recognition.

For the integrity of the rating system

The cap, the 95% rule, the fair-play screening — these exist to protect the system. The rating list belongs to everyone who ever earned a number at the board, and this programme only works if it takes nothing from them.

For chess as a sport

A rating system that reaches only a small fraction of players is a missed opportunity. This is about making the official game reflect how chess is actually played today.

“A FIDE rating opens doors to a professional chess career for those who want it. Some players who want one have never had a way in. This program is designed to change that.”

Ilya Merenzon — CEO, World Chess

The guardrails

On fair play.
The hardest problem.

Cheating is the question the chess community will ask first. It should be. Here is exactly what the paper puts in place.

Every game screened

Every qualifying game passes FIDE-approved anti-cheating screening. Results in doubt are held, not converted.

Identity verified

Bank-level verification before qualifying. Players compete under their own names, and fair-play violations carry severe penalties.

Deliberately conservative

The formula is anchored to the cautious end of the data. Where it errs, it errs low — roughly nine times in ten.

The board has the last word

If a player’s official rating falls more than 100 points below what they were assigned, conversion is suspended until the points are regained over the board.

Formal appeals

Results under review go to a dedicated Anti-Cheating Officer, with a written statement of reasons and a formal appeal route for every player.

A real record required

At least 50 rated games in specially designated online tournaments. Casual play does not count.

<1%

of the world’s chess players hold a FIDE rating

8,600

dual-rated players behind the formula

sections below, open for your comments

Open consultation

The method, section by section.
Your turn.

The consultation is open. Each section below summarises part of the white paper in plain language. Send a comment on any of them — it goes straight to the team, every submission is read, and the paper will change because of what we hear.

Read the full white paper.

The complete method — the data, the formulas, the tables, the safeguards.

Download PDF ›

Or say it in person.

Open hours on Zoom — Wednesday, August 19, 16:00 CEST. No slides. We’ll mostly be listening.

Join on Zoom ›

Read the joint FIDE × World Chess announcement ›

`; var sections = [ {id:'qualifying', num:'01', title:'Who can qualify', draft:'A player with no FIDE over-the-board rating qualifies with: a World Chess (FIDE Online Arena) rating of at least 1475 in the format being converted; at least 50 online rated games in specially designated tournaments; and fair-play clearance. Rapid and Blitz are treated separately — a Rapid record affects only a Rapid rating, and likewise for Blitz.'}, {id:'formula', num:'02', title:'The conversion formula', draft:'The assigned rating is the lowest of three numbers: a statistical value fitted to the lower quartile of what 8,600 dual-rated players actually hold (Rapid: 0.532 × online + 724; Blitz: 0.603 × online + 645); 95% of the player’s online rating; and 1800. Measured against real players, the result is on average 175–195 points below actual over-the-board strength. The coefficients are recalculated every six months, and any revision is published before it takes effect.'}, {id:'fairplay', num:'03', title:'Fair play', draft:'Every qualifying game is screened by FIDE’s approved anti-cheating system, with a dedicated Fair Play team and an established penalty and appeals framework. Results under review are held, not converted. Every player verifies their identity before qualifying, and fair-play clearance is required before every conversion — initial and annual.'}, {id:'ceiling', num:'04', title:'The ceiling and the 95% rule', draft:'Nothing converts above 1800 — above that line, ratings are earned over the board, as they always have been. And no assigned rating ever exceeds 95% of what the player has demonstrated online. The programme structurally cannot grant more than the player has already shown.'}, {id:'annual', num:'05', title:'Annual conversion for players who already hold a rating', draft:'Once per calendar year, at the player’s own request, a rated player may close part of the gap between their online and official rating. The gap is capped at 200 points, and the pace depends on how their official rating has actually moved: rising at the board converts faster (up to 100% of the capped gap), standing still converts slowly (25%), and a rating that has fallen converts not at all. A rating can never fall as a result of this process. If a player’s board rating drops more than 100 points below what they were last assigned, conversion is suspended until the points are regained over the board.'}, {id:'review', num:'06', title:'Duration, recalibration and review', draft:'The programme would run for two years on worldchess.com under full FIDE supervision, with the possibility of extension. Conversion coefficients are recalculated every six months against the accumulated data, revisions are published in advance, and the pilot generates a public record of how converted players actually perform over the board — evidence that informs each recalibration and the final review.'} ]; function buildRows(){ return sections.map(function(s, i){ return `

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From the white paper

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Your comment

Type

Name

Role

Opening your email app…

Your comment is sent by email and read by the World Chess team. Prefer to say it out loud? Join the open hours on August 19.

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