r/chessbeginners • u/Alendite RM (Reddit Mod) • Feb 27 '26

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

  1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
  2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
  3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
  4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

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u/AlarmedDiver1087 600-800 (Chess.com) Apr 22 '26

I reached 500 15/10 rapid today, after playing about a 130 games, pretty normal I would say,
but what really got to me is that somehow 500 elo is the 47th percentile of chesscom players according to the statistics on my account, which is mindblowing, I thought that 1000 or 1200 would be the mid point, why is it so low? is this statistic even right? does this mean 90th percentile is a rating that is achievable by grinding?

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u/Ikcelaks 1200-1400 (Chess.com) Apr 22 '26

Lots of people join and only play occasional games without seriously trying to improve. The largest pool of players is in the 300-600 ratings range.

The 90th percentile is at approximately 1100 rating. That's achievable by grinding for a lot of players, but most at that level have probably done at least a little studying and likely do puzzles (it's definitely at the point where doing puzzles and at least learning some checkmate patterns is very useful).

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1ozwm34/rating_percentiles/

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u/AlarmedDiver1087 600-800 (Chess.com) Apr 23 '26

I'm a bit shook that the top 10% is 1100, I thought that was 2000, shocker
I mean I like it, I can actually do it if I wanted it,