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For an official rating, play events rated by FIDE or a national system such as DWZ, ECF or US Chess, which only count registered or reported events. Casual games at a café, a bar or the kitchen table don't count toward any of them. For those games, Checkmate IRL gives you an offline rating: every game between 2 players who both have accounts is rated with Glicko-1 once it syncs. It's Checkmate IRL's own, unofficial rating and never feeds into FIDE or a national one.
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No. FIDE only rates games from tournaments that a national federation registers in advance, between players registered through a FIDE member federation. Standard games also need a minimum of 60, 90 or 120 minutes each, depending on the players' ratings.
A first FIDE rating takes at least 5 games against FIDE-rated opponents within 26 months, and they don't have to come from one tournament. Since 1 March 2024 the rating must be at least 1400 to be published, so players below that are listed as unrated. Your FIDE ID usually comes through your national federation.
National ratings set their own rules, and each one also needs a reported event:
The Checkmate IRL rating is a Glicko-1 rating (we also call it offline Elo) that updates after each rated game you play over the board, once the game syncs.
Glicko, designed by Mark Glickman, pairs your rating with a rating deviation, which his paper describes as a measure of how uncertain the rating is. The deviation is high when you've played few rated games or haven't played in a while.
In Glicko, each game lowers it, and time without rated games raises it again. While it's high, your rating moves more after each result. In Glickman's model, your rating plus or minus 2 deviations gives the range your strength falls in with about 95% confidence.
In Checkmate IRL specifically:
You play rated games on the Checkmate IRL chess clock, and games in Checkmate IRL events count like any other. The clock works offline, and your rating catches up when the game syncs.
The app is free, with an optional Checkmate IRL Pro plan, and has no ads. How it works covers the full flow, and tracking your over-the-board games explains what each game saves. To find people to play, the venue map lists cafés, clubs and parks near you.
The 4 kinds of rating differ in which games count and how you get started:
| Rating | Which games count | Who runs it | How to start | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIDE rating | Games in FIDE-rated tournaments registered by a national federation | FIDE | 5 games against FIDE-rated opponents, published at 1400 or higher | Varies by federation and event |
| National rating (DWZ, ECF, US Chess) | Games from events reported to the federation | Your national federation | DWZ: 5 games against rated players. US Chess: 4 rated games | Club or federation membership; the ECF charges non-members a game fee |
| Online rating (Chess.com, Lichess) | Rated games played on that site; Chess.com makes games between players in the same location unrated | Chess.com (Glicko) or Lichess (Glicko-2) | Create an account and play rated games online | Free accounts on both |
| Checkmate IRL rating | In-person games between 2 players who both have accounts | Checkmate IRL (Glicko-1) | Your own rating or 650, established after 3 rated games | Free, with optional Checkmate IRL Pro |
No. Each rating has its own pool of players, and there's no official conversion between them. Lichess itself advises against comparing its ratings with those of other organizations.
The systems are related. Chess.com says it uses Glicko, Lichess runs Glicko-2, and Glickman wrote that the Elo system turns out to be a special case of his. The same family of formulas still gives different numbers when the players in each pool are different.
The Checkmate IRL rating won't feed into FIDE or a national rating, now or later. That's both the point and the limit: your casual games finally count for something, and that something lives inside Checkmate IRL. Chess.com vs Lichess vs Checkmate IRL compares the 3 in more detail.
Not today. In June 2026, FIDE and World Chess agreed in principle to test a first official over-the-board rapid and blitz rating earned in ID-verified online tournaments on worldchess.com, capped at 1800.
That's a proposal, and we found no confirmed launch as of October 2026. It would also rate online tournament games, so games at a café or a club night would still sit outside it.
An offline chess rating is a rating for games played across a physical board outside official events. The Checkmate IRL offline rating uses Glicko-1 and is separate from your online and FIDE ratings.
Play FIDE-rated tournaments as a player registered through your national federation, with at least 5 games against FIDE-rated opponents within 26 months. Your first rating is published if it comes out at 1400 or higher.
1400. Since 1 March 2024, FIDE lists players below 1400 as unrated.
You start at your own rating, or at 650 by default. After 3 rated games, it counts as established.
Yes. A game is rated only when both players have Checkmate IRL accounts, and the rating updates once the game syncs. A game against a guest is saved but not rated.
Only against a guest without an account. There's no rated or casual switch, so every game between 2 players with accounts is rated once it syncs.
Glicko adds a rating deviation that measures how certain a rating is, which suits players who play rarely or have few rated games. Glickman describes Elo as a special case of his system.
No. It's a separate rating with its own players and no official conversion, and it never feeds into FIDE or a national rating.
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