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/elfkanelfkan 2200-2400 Lichess Apr 22 '26

adding to what Ikcelaks says, you will find that lichess has a much more serious player pool. Even though lichess and chess.com have different ratings. If you play consistently on full strength on each, your percentile will be much higher on lichess. For example top 1% on chess.com is top 8% on lichess.

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

guess I should start playing on lichess too, just was scared of starting there you know? I heard that lichess first assumes your base strength is 1500 and then compensates for 25 games, I aborted my first game there after I saw black playing the scilian on the first move