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| Tools to Calculate Your Chess Rating | ||||||
| Even if you hate math, you can perform rating calculations. | ||||||
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One of the best things about playing chess is getting a chess rating. Two players who have never met over a chess board can size each other up just by knowing the other's rating. If you're in the dark about what a rating is, see our previous article Chess Ratings (in the link box at the bottom of this article). If you know what a rating is, you might also want to know how to calculate it. While the principles behind the rating system rest on some deep statistical theory, the mechanics of calculating a rating are not complicated. Even if you hate math, you can perform the calculations using basic algebra. Algebra is not your cup of tea either, you say? Then see our Rating Calculator tool (link box again). Just plug in your current rating, your opponents' ratings, and your results. Then click 'Calculate'. The tool will determine your new rating plus show some intermediate numbers used to compute the rating. If you are comfortable with numbers and want to know how a rating is calculated, see our series of pages on Step By Step Rating Calculation (link box). It will lead you (step By step!) through the different intermediate calculations which finally produce that magic number which becomes your new rating. If you don't have a chess rating, you can still calculate an approximate rating known as a performance rating. This handy gadget is based on your results against rated players. Our Rating Calculator computes this number whether or not you enter your current rating and our Step By Step Calculation explains how to calculate it yourself.
Now that you know what a performance rating is, you are ready for a useful trick. You can use the it to identify your strengths and weaknesses! Start by calculating your performance using only games where you played White. Do the same calculation on games where you played Black. If these numbers are significantly different then you might want to determine why. Calculate your performance on games where you played the White side of a Sicilian Defense or the Black side of a King's Indian (or any of your favorite openings). Compare these to your overall performance rating with White (or Black). You might discover that you play a particular opening very well but need to work on another opening where your results are less satisfactory. You can use this trick on anything : first round games of events, last round games, tactical middle games, endgames, Rook and Pawn endgames, etc. etc. The better you understand your personal style, the more dangerous you will be over the board. We guarantee it.
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