Chess Rating HQ

Converter / Is 900 a good rating?

Is 900 a Good Chess Rating?

As of July 2026, a 900 blitz rating on Chess.com is higher than 65.3% of active rated blitz players, which puts you above the median active rated player. On Lichess, where ratings run higher, 900 blitz outrates 6.7% of active players.

Whether 900 is "good" depends on the yardstick. Compared with everyone who plays rated chess online, the percentiles below are the honest answer. Compared with titled players, almost every rating is a work in progress. Both things are true.

Where 900 stands, by platform and time control

Rating poolHigher thanPlacing
Chess.com Bullet68.8%top 31.2%
Chess.com Blitz65.3%top 34.7%
Chess.com Rapid65.1%top 34.9%
Lichess Bullet5.7%top 94.3%
Lichess Blitz6.7%top 93.3%
Lichess Rapid11.4%top 88.6%
Lichess Classical2.7%top 97.3%

These percentiles cover active rated players: people who actually play rated games, not abandoned accounts. That makes the bar higher than statistics that count every account ever created. For scale: climbing from 900 to 1000 on Chess.com blitz means overtaking about 5.8% of the active pool.

The same standing on other sites and speeds

Taking 900 Chess.com blitz as the reference point, these ratings sit at the same percentile in their own pools. The flagship conversion, 900 Chess.com blitz to Lichess blitz, lands at 1652 with a 95% confidence range of 1640 to 1663.

Rating poolSame-percentile rating
Chess.com Bullet838
Chess.com Rapid903
Lichess Bullet1764
Lichess Blitz1652
Lichess Rapid1560
Lichess Classical1658

Numbers come from our percentile-equating model, recomputed monthly from the Lichess weekly census (CC0 data) and our own random sample of active Chess.com players. Full details on the methodology page.

Frequently asked

What percentile is a 900 chess rating?

On Chess.com, a 900 blitz rating is higher than 65.3% of active rated blitz players. On Lichess, 900 blitz is higher than 6.7% of active rated players. Lichess ratings run higher on average, so the same number means different strength on each site.

What is 900 on Chess.com in Lichess terms?

A 900 Chess.com blitz rating sits at the same percentile as roughly 1652 Lichess blitz (95% confidence range 1640 to 1663), based on July 2026 data.

Is 800 a good rating? · Convert 900 yourself · Is 1000 a good rating?

Related: what the average chess rating actually is · the full Chess.com to Lichess conversion tables · how Elo, Glicko, and Glicko-2 actually work