Elo ratings
Elo ratings, invented by the Hungarian statistician Professor Arpad Elo, express the playing strength of chess players. Strong club players may reach 2000 points, International Masters are usually 2300 to 2500, Grandmasters up to 2700, with a very small number of players exceeding that (Garry Kasparov is the only player in history to exceed 2800).
The Elo ratings can also be used to evaluate chess engines. This program helps you to do this by producing rating and ranking lists on the basis of engine tournaments. In fact, it contains a complete Elo management system. GM and IM norms are automatically recognized and titles awarded. The Elo calculation can be used to evaluate human performance, even for historical tournaments that were held long before the rating system was invented. If you have an existing Elo list, you can add a tournament to update the list.
Here's a list of rating categories
Playing strength |
Player category |
1000-1600 |
Average club player |
1600-2100 |
Strong club player |
2100-2300 |
International league player |
2300-2450 |
International Master (IM) |
2450-2600 |
Grandmaster (GM) |
2600-2850 |
Supergrandmaster, world champion |